A Strange Turn of Events
by AllinforHPDM-ATSSRBBCB-TEC-etc
Summary: In the normal world, the Avengers are just a movie franchise and comic book superheroes. Until one night, a whole generation of teenagers who just turned 18 get extremely sick and wake up the next morning to find their soulmate's first sentence inscribed on them. Adrian Leeson is 18 and there's problems aplenty with his soulmate to be. May become M later on...
1. Chapter 1

**Alright, Author here, I'm sorry for any inconvenience with the whole 'code' thing, but I believe this is now corrected. I would also like to warn that this is a M/M story, so please don't continue to read if you're not interested.**

 **I don't own Avengers or any characters or scenes of movies from Marvel**

* * *

It wasn't until Adrian Leeson was in 12th grade when he learned about soul mates, as the world had been taken by surprise when all the teenagers that just turned 18 had first been bonded to some person, they had no idea who, three years ago. He remembered thinking that he would find out soon enough as it was February 9th and his birthday was on February 14th.

Adrian remembered waking up on his birthday with butterflies in his stomach. He would be finding out the next night what his soulmate's first words to him would be, but he wouldn't get 'sick' until he truly turned 18, which was that night. He had been glad it was Saturday though, he didn't want to miss a day of school. He's going to a fancy Italian restaurant with some friends to celebrate. First though, as they had decided against a dinner reservation, he had to get through to noon before they went. He had decided to wear nice clothes that day and had headed downstairs to grab breakfast and head out for some recreation. Nothing eventful occurred through the afternoon, except for some of his friends (including some of the males) had hoped they were his mate, so he wouldn't have trouble with finding the person who said, or will say, those first words. That night he got truly ill and was unconscious pretty soon due to his sickness being way too extreme. He hadn't known it, but the invisible hand of fate had been scribbling more than one pair of first words on his wrist that he'd be surprised about.

After a day passed, and it was exactly 24 hours after Adrian turned 18, he woke up perfectly healthy. Adrian was very excited to see who would be his soulmate, but decided to eat something first as his last meal had been Italian lunch the day before. After grabbing a couple PB&J sandwiches, his cat Bilbo, and some of his favorite marvel movies (all the Iron Man, Captain America, and Avengers movies), he sat down on his bed and proceeded to start watching Iron Man. As it was, Adrian got so engrossed watching the movies, he forgot about his wrist until he was putting in the second Avengers movie. He decided to look at it when Wanda Maximoff was getting shocked by a taser-arrow from Hawkeye.

His eyes bulged out in surprise and he nearly choked on the bite of his sandwich. Of course he'd get two soulmates. Adrian had always known he was different since he was 6 and his cousin introduced him to the world of Marvel by showing him some comic books while they were hanging out in his room. It might not've been such a big deal if he hadn't been able to see color after looking at the ones that he now considers favorites, Iron Man and Captain America. He had been confused because the rest of his brothers and sisters couldn't see color and they were older than him. Luckily, he never told anyone he was able to see color, since he would've been an outcast from the rest of his fact that it was also discovered you could be under 18 and see your soulmate and after be able to see some color confused Adrian as, he knew his cousin couldn't be his soulmate (the bond doesn't allow incest) and he only ever saw him when he was suddenly able to see color. He had two pairs of words on his wrist. He looked at his wrist again to see if he was mistaken, but no those two pairs of words were still there in beautiful calligraphy:

 _Uhh… my names Steve, Steve Rogers_ and, in slightly lighter text, _I'm Tony Stark, but you probably already knew that._

After a moment he recognized the names. Why did he have to have to be the one person to end up with Marvel superhero soul mates who aren't real? 'I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life' he thought. As he did, the screen of his TV started flickering. As this happened often to Adrian (his TV wasn't very new) he simply stood up, holding Bilbo, and stepped forward to tinker with the TV. One problem though, as he touched the screen, he felt a pull on his entire body and he, along with Bilbo, vanished into the television.

* * *

 _Stark Tower, New York City Marvel Universe..._

Tony Stark was in his lab, working on his newest suit design, when he became feverish and started mumbling gibberish. Fortunately, Pepper Potts was on her way down and had just entered the room when he slumped to the side and almost fell out of his chair, before she caught him.

"Tony?!"

That's when it all went black…

* * *

 _Some distance away in an unidentified Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division facility, New York City Marvel Universe…_

Director Nick Fury was sitting in one of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division's agent's offices when the alarms from the equipment around Captain Steve Roger's frozen form went off and Agent Coulson strode in, "Coulson, report!" he ordered the agent.

"Sir, we don't know exactly what's going on, but our equipment has picked up that Captain Rogers has somehow become ill."

"What do you mean 'ill'! How can he get sick now when he's been frozen for 70 years?" Fury questioned.

"Well, sir, his temperature has risen to 109 degrees Fahrenheit and his vitals have lowered dangerously. Also, the ice around him has started melting before planned." Agent Coulson responded, used to his director's attitude.

"Monitor his condition. Report any changes directly to me." Agent Coulson took this as his Director's dismissal, but before he was out the door Director Fury said one last thing, "Also I need you to check in on Tony Stark as intel suggests he has deteriorated to a sick mess and they aren't sure if it's a disease, result of stress, or lack of proper sleep and food consumption." as he finished Fury excused Agent Coulson and hoped that this wasn't some aftereffect of Tony Stark's palladium poisoning last year. Even as he thought this, Steve Rogers was melting faster and faster and Tony Stark was mumbling gibberish and was unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

**"Yay," you say, "the Author is updating!" or not I don't care this is Fanfiction, not the real world. Okay, so, I am starting a reference hunt! See, in some chapters I'll slip in one or more references to some of my more favorite movies or books or other miscellaneous things. If any readers so wish, they can find them. If you find all of them altogether for a chapter I'll** ** _attempt_** **(emphasis on attempt) to PM a preview of the next chapter to the people who find them within 11 days (If that's enough time). Also, I will say in this 'Author's note' on any other chapters if there are references in them. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I am not rich, therefore I can't possibly own anything Marvel or any possible things mentioned in references.**

Adrian was surprised when he landed, popping out of what he figured was a portal. He didn't know what just happened, but planned on finding out.

"Oh good, you're finally here." Adrian jumped, dropping Bilbo, when a pleasant voice came from in front of him. Adrian looked up to see an older, very smartly dressed… him?! Just as he was about to yell he calmed himself.

Calming down, Adrian shot off, "What am I doing here? Who are you? Why do you look like me? Wh-"

"Whoa! Slow down! One question at a time, okay?" the other him interrupted.

"Okay, so who are you and why do you look like me?" Adrian asked himself.

"I'd think that's obvious, but to answer _both_ of those questions, I'm you essentially, but I go by a different name and have certain characteristics you don't." the other him said.

"Well, what's your name? I keep referring to you as the 'other me'."

"Ah! Well, my name is Henry York Maccabee. Wait, no, that's not quite right... How to put it. Hmm… Well, I guess I'm the part of your soul that was attached to Henry York Maccabee of Hylfing, but no longer is." The now named Henry said.

"Wait, soul? What do you mean soul?!" Adrian questioned after a moment

"Well, let me begin with your existence coming into the universes, galaxies, dimensions, or whatever you wish to call them. Before you were born, the Primal Gods decided that your soul would be split into billions of pieces, each differing in size, and spread throughout the cosmos.

It was decided that at the age of 18 all your soul bits and pieces would be brought here along with you, so you might become more whole and learn to cope with all the things you will learn, become, or be able to do. I understand this may be confusing, and I will try to answer what questions I can before we become one, but as I don't have a full understanding of it either, I might be unable to answer some of your questions. Now ask whatever you wish to ask"

After considering this new information, Adrian asked, "Why is it you seem older than me if you're 18 like me?"

"Oh, I think you misunderstood. I didn't mean that your soul bits came here only when they reached 18. I meant that they'd all be summoned here when _you_ turned 18."

"Why?"

"Well, since your soul piece is the largest; your characteristics, personality, and traits will be most dominant. Which leads to your soul piece being most important and that when yours turned 18, then we'd all be brought here. You're a little late though we all got here 10 hours ago. Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably only been about an hour in your...uh…. let's just go with world for now."

"Why so many pieces?" Adrian asked, curious.

"That, I have no idea, but I have something to tell you…."

Noticing Henry's apprehension Adrian got suspicious and quietly said, "Tell me what?"

"Well, there's a thing with your soul pieces, you'll be absorbing each and every one. That's why you're here and didn't just get all of them shoved into you on your travel to the alternate…. world. You see, when you absorb them, they'll affect you in hundreds of ways. Heck, you may even find yourself knowing some of them, considering any book or created thing in your world has its own… Well, let's call it universe, but back to the topic. You have to absorb a few bits and pieces at a time and adjust to any new features… or abilities. Plus-"

He startled when he heard Bilbo meow and felt him rub against his leg, "Wait, your cat was brought with you!"

Surprised, Adrian quickly spoke, "What's wrong with that?"

"I don't really know, but my theory is that your cat may be in the same situation as you. I think it will have soul pieces in the companions of the things your soul pieces were a part of," He stopped for a moment when something started to form next to him, a small creature that looked like a rhino with wings. Adrian's attention was drawn back to Henry when he gave a slight gasp of recognition. He asked, "What? What is it?"

Henry, now having gotten over his stunned silence, quickly explained, "It's proving my theory correct. Let me explain, this is a raggant, or at least the soul piece to your pet that was attached to the raggant where I was located. It was a companion of sorts and was responsible for finding me in the world I'm from. I guess it will be absorbed by your pet like I will be by you."

"Okay. Well, what were you saying before Bilbo interrupted you?"

"What do you mean?"

Rolling his eyes, Adrian elaborated, "I meant when you were telling me how I would be adjusting to new features and abilities."

Understanding, Henry said, "Ah, yes. As I was saying, you will also probably have changes to your personality and memory somewhat. It shouldn't be too great of changes, but I thought you'd probably like to know. Also, I don't know what the absorption feels like, so for all I know it might not feel good."

"Is there anything else I should know at the moment?"

"Not that I can think of, but we should go to where the first few pieces are waiting for you."

 _Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division_

 _facility; New York City, New York._

Steve Rogers woke up with a splitting headache. When he opened his eyes he found himself in a somewhat familiar infirmary setting. As he observed the room he listened to the nearby radio and realized there was something very familiar about the baseball game playing As he was sitting up he looked over at the radio. He was momentarily distracted when a nurse-like woman walked in. She calmly said, "Good morning," before looking down at her watch after closing the door, and saying, "Or should I say good afternoon."

Steve eyed her as she stood there with her hands folded in front of her before asking, "Where am I?"

With a moment's pause she answered, "You're in a recovery room in New York City."

Steve watched her for a moment more before looking at the radio as he heard something he recognised. As the realization hit him he glanced at the woman with mistrust before saying, "Where am I really?"

The woman gave a short, confused laugh, "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"The game, it's from May, 1941. I know 'cause I was there." Steve watched as a look of worry came onto the woman's face after he said that. He stood up, "Now, I'm going to ask you again. Where am I?"

As Steve walked closer, the woman pressed a button on a remote she was holding at her side before quickly saying, "Captain Rogers,"

Steve interrupted her, "Who are you?" Before getting an answer, the door opened and two men dressed heavily in black gear entered. Steve immediately went on the defense and threw the two men through the wall, creating a hole that he quickly jumped through and he looked around quickly, seeing it was just a set-up.

He ran in a direction and heard the woman calling behind him, "Captain Rogers! Wait!" before he burst through some doors into a hallway and heard, _-I repeat. All agents Code 13-_ over the intercom. Running down the hall knocking over several men trying to stop him, he ended up racing out of the facility into the road outside where a taxi and a turquoise car were coming towards him. He ran the same direction and came to a stop into a square of sorts with all kinds of signs, billboards, and well, other things the man didn't even know what they were. He turned in a circle looking around in shock as crowds walked by, not even seeming to notice all the things on the buildings.

He turned to see several black vehicles coming towards him. Right when he saw some more men dressed in black gear he heard from behind him, "At ease soldier!" Turning around he saw a man wearing all black; a black shirt and pants, a black trenchcoat, and a black eye-patch over his left eye. The man in black stepped forward and spoke in a calm, somewhat gruff voice, "Look, I'm sorry about that little show back there, but," he paused, "we thought it best to break it to you slowly."

"Break what?" the Captain asked in a slight hoarse manner.

The man stared at him, but answered, "You've been asleep, Cap. For almost 70 years."

Realizing what that meant, Steve looked around despondently, when he heard the trenchcoat wearing man ask, "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I just… had a date."

 _Stark Tower; New York City, New York_

Tony Stark woke up in his bed in confusion. He couldn't remember why he was in his bed, usually he slept in a cot in his workshop. Unless he had a girl in the place, but he knew that wasn't the case, as he was currently in a relationship with Pepper Potts. He finally tried to remember what happened, but all he could remember was working in his workshop and hearing his name. Nothing else. He figured Jarvis would tell him, so called out, "Jarvis, update me on what happened."

" _Sir, three days ago you started to lose consciousness while at your workstation. If Miss Potts hadn't arrived at that moment and caught you, you probably would've been seriously injured by your equipment. You were brought up here and have had several doctors and such come to check on you. You've been unconscious for three days. If you wish I can scan your vitals."_

"Well, might as well. Have at it." Tony waited while Jarvis scanned him and wondered what could've caused his sudden illness. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Jarvis say, " _Sir, your vitals are in a healthy range."_ Jarvis had overlooked a little thing on Tony's body that was giving off medium levels of energy: words written minisculely on the back of his ear:

" _Oh, aren't you full of it, and yes I know of the name Stark, but not in the way you think."_

Stark took in the information with curiosity, wondering what had happened; not knowing of Jarvis' overlooking, he took it in stride.

" _Would you like for me to notify Miss Potts? She requested to be told if there was any change in your condition."_

"Might as well, but don't forget to mention my perfect health."

" _I certainly agree,"_ Jarvis spoke sarcastically, before continuing, " _I'm notifying Miss Potts."_

"You know, sometimes I wish I hadn't added the attitude." Tony mumbled to himself.

Unfortunately, Jarvis picked up on it and said, " _You don't say? How intriguing."_

Realizing he didn't have a shirt on, Tony went and grabbed one from one of the drawers. After slipping it on he turned around to find Pepper Potts glaring at him. The next thing he knew he was getting scolded for getting out of bed when he was so ill and that he shouldn't be doing anything to weaken himself. Groaning, Tony spoke to Jarvis, "Please tell me you told her I was perfectly fine."

" _I told her you were perfectly fine."_ Jarvis quoted.

Tony growled and realized why he was feeling quite irked, he hadn't had coffee yet. He quickly said to Jarvis, "Tell her I'm fine while I go get a cup of coffee."

He walked out before Pepper could stop him, but not before he heard her yell again that he shouldn't be out of bed. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright, The Author is here to update and say, enjoy and have a nice day**

 **That and that I have need of characters so please send me your ideas or OCs or, if you wish, yourself in a format following this somewhat:**

 **Name:**

 **Characteristics:  
**

 **Any quirks:**

 **Enemy/Ally:**

 **What you want their role to possibly be (Superhero, Agent, lover to a character, etc):**

 **I might not use all info. given. Also, I may use the OCs in other stories if I don't use them in this story. At the ends of chapters with peoples' OCs in them I will try to list the people. Please keep in mind that I am human and may not be able to keep track of all kinds of different characters in one single story, so they may not appear in this story, but may in others. On another note (hehe. get it?) There are references in this chapter, so find them and try to figure out what they are from. If you find most of them, comment or PM me the references and what they are referencing and I'll attempt to PM a preview of the next story to you. The hunt in this chapter ends when I update again.**

 **That is all, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I want you to think very carefully, now tell me is it possible for me a poor, young person to own Marvel or anything referenced? NO! So there you go!**

* * *

With a groan, Adrian sat up and looked about. He decided he wasn't much of a fan of the absorption process, but he hadn't thought it'd would give him such a headache.

"You're already awake?! All conditions were pointing to you not becoming conscious for another few days. I don't see how you are...Hmm." Adrian looked to where a door had appeared in the wall where there hadn't been one when he had first looked. Another him was standing there, but it most certainly wasn't Henry. No, this soul piece was different, especially considering the fact that it was a girl. She was looking at something in her hand, papers of some sort, while slightly twirling a lock of long brown hair. Adrian watched her as she apparently tried to clue in on why he wasn't still unconscious. When a splitting pain shot through his head he grimaced, gaining the attention of the female him. She looked up, "Oh, sorry I should probably introduce myself. I know you've gotten the whole 'I'm you' bit so I'll just get straight to it. Hi, I'm Kendra." She walked towards him holding out her hand. Adrian was just going to shake her hand when she quickly pulled back before he could even touch her hand, "Oh, I almost forgot. That was a close one whew!" At Adrian's puzzled look she continued, "Don't you remember? Oh, well your mind must still be processing all the lives. You can probably now remember some of them…

"But anyways, I can't touch you otherwise you'd absorb me. I'm guessing you're wondering what happened. Okay, so, we started your absorption of a few soul pieces and of course we had the majority of the other soul pieces there since it was considered a big deal. Nothing really happened when you absorbed the first two, but when you absorbed the third, you kind of turned into a vacuum and sucked in over ¾ of your total soul pieces before we could remove you from the area and you stopped absorbing.

"If that hadn't happened, you probably would've only felt slightly disoriented immediately afterwards, but you absorbed thousands upon thousands of different life experiences with the souls. That's a lot of information for your mind to process, changes to your own form, and the building up of your soul's size. That's kind of a recipe for aches and comatose-like conditions. That's kind of why I'm surprised you're awake, you absorbed all those pieces just yesterday and you should be out still for another few days, but seeing as you're awake now I guess it doesn't matter so much. Your mind must be very strong." She ended, smiling.

After a moment Adrian did recall what she was talking about, but before he said anything along those lines, he realized that he felt the need to go to the bathroom, "Excuse me, but where is the toilet?"

"What?" Kendra asked, looking at Adrian as if he was being ridiculous, "We're soul pieces, we don't have actual physical form, it's why you aren't hungry or thirsty even though you've been here about three days. I think your mind is acting off due to the overload of info."

Adrian realized she was right when the need vanished and he actually felt some of the aches already fading to nothing. It was at that moment that a question came into his mind, "Wait, how am I going to exist where I'm going if I have no physical form?"

"We're pretty sure you will actually materialize once you get to where you're going, but you'll be finding out pretty soon now since you've absorbed most of your soul now. There's only about 30 left, not including the major ones anyways, there's only a few left including me."

"Well, well… um… so where am I going to be going? Wait a minute. What am I even going to be gender-wise? I'm pretty sure that you're not the only female soul piece. I just thought of another thing; Why do I only have a fuzzy memory of where I came from?"

"Really? Well Adrian, I think it's because of all your soul memories. I believe you will lose your unimportant memories, but the important ones will be somewhat fuzzy. Strangely, any education received by any of your soul pieces will be clear and you will probably acquire an eidetic and photographic memory. It's still in question though. To answer your first question, I'm pretty sure you will be going where your soulmates are. To the second one, I don't know I think it's likely that you will be male due to the majority of the pieces being male, but being female could be like a dominant gene in genetics. I can't say. Heck, you may become both somehow. We'll see when there's only one or two of your soul pieces left."

"Well, I might as well continue absorbing now. Right?"

Kendra was slow to answer, "If you're up to it, then yes."

After a brief nod from Adrian, Kendra led him out of the room into a gray hallway, "Kind of bland isn't it," she spoke as they walked. When Adrian only nodded she continued, "We didn't think it important for the place to be decorative since we wouldn't be here very long anyways, but I find it a bit depressing."

Adrian remained mostly quiet, preoccupied with his thoughts, so Kendra stopped trying to start up a conversation and just walked with Adrian in companionable silence. As they were walking, it seemed to be a bit of a walk to get to where he was going to absorb more pieces, Adrian kept getting strange memory flashes-of things like a stick, cloak, and stone, a strange screwdriver, beautiful countryland, a dog getting its neck broken as it called out to him with a different name, searing pain in his pelvic area (must be a female soul piece there), a strange object shaped like an infinity symbol, a bronze sword, a strange purple creature, a sparkling person with a smell of enemy, a night guard, a gray cat and a 'bluestar', a giant bodyguard fighting a disgusting smelling creature, someone yelling 'Oh, sugar honey iced tea!', cold and the moon, flying so silent, immense torture, being kidnapped, dying in a car where no one could reach, a man smelling of prunes and a boy yelling 'Cacaw, cacaw rawr!', little chihuahua puppies all muddy, being fed dead humans by fellow teenagers, receiving multiple electronics and fixing an old man's diner, his 'one true love' dead of poison and taking his own life, a man dying with a blade in his throat from Adrian's wrist, riding a great sapphire colored dragon, a cat drifting down a stream in a box, and so many other things- but any feelings came detached and it felt like he had never experienced them, but yet experienced them all. It made him somewhat dizzy and he stumbled once, but it calmed down after that.

They arrived at where Adrian was going to absorb and Kendra split away from him not wanting to be absorbed just yet. They began. Adrian walked up to a very beautiful girl and asked her a few questions before absorbing her. He found that her name was April and that she was a reporter, but when he absorbed her he got a flash of green faces with purple, orange, red, and blue cloth covering their eyes. He moved on and repeated the process with a sandy-blonde haired teen wearing a brown cloak, who he discovered liked to fly in spaceships. From him, Adrian got a flash of a small green creature and a dark mask. Adrian started to get an odd feeling and knew that there'd most likely be a repeat of what had happened before he woke up again.

Making a decision, he told those around that he'd like to absorb as many pieces as he could before he became unconscious. Hesitantly, several more pieces were brought into the room. Adrian started to absorb them one by one and by the fourth piece he got to, he started to feel like he was opening up. Fighting the feel and suppressing it, Adrian actually managed to absorb all the pieces without actually going full-vacuum, but he was pale and shaky at the end of it. He was sure he could continue, he just wanted it all over with, if he just got an hour of rest. He was made to rest and sleep, but he told the soul pieces watching over him to wake him in about an hour so he could continue, but he felt like he should probably set an alarm just in case. Before he could he began to fall asleep and just figured the pieces would actually heed his wishes.

* * *

He knew he should've found a way to set an alarm, he just knew it! He sat up in the bed he was in and looked at the clock they were using in the building to keep track of how long they do something, 10 hours. They left him to sleep for 10 hours, but Adrian logically figured that if he actually slept that long, then he probably did need it and he wasn't mad. He got out of the bed and made his way back to what he decided to call the absorption chamber. On the way, he again had more memory flashes, but they were different from the previous ones.

Upon his arrival, he found himself presented with several pieces and he heard the voice of Kendra over some sort of intercom, "Alright Adrian, these are the last of the minor soul pieces. According to the soul pieces watching over you, when you fell asleep, you actually absorbed several hundred pieces while you were asleep somehow. That's why we left you for so long." Adrian saw the common sense in it and didn't really react, he just started absorbing quickly. He had an easier time this time thanks to the rest he got, even if he did absorb some soul pieces while asleep, and managed to absorb all of the pieces and only be slightly pale and shaky.

"Well," he said slightly unsteady, "glad I got that over with. It would've been much longer if I stuck to the other way of doing it."

"Oh yes, but you're not done yet you still have us to absorb." A voice came from behind Adrian. He turned around to see five soul pieces. One was a stunningly beautiful woman, so beautiful that Adrian wondered how her soul was even part of his. The one to her right was an extremely large man that was insanely muscled, Adrian wouldn't have been surprised if he had large everything and muscle everywhere. The middle piece was the one speaking, it was a younger boy who Adrian could sense was very intelligent. Next was a dark blue dragon with a round-ish face and cat-like behavior, Adrian belatedly wondered how that would affect his appearance. Finally, there was Kendra, and she was waving slightly at Adrian.

Kendra spoke up, "Well except me, you won't be absorbing me yet. I'm supposed to be your support somewhat."

The middle one spoke again, "Yes, that's true, but he will be absorbing us now and then he will soon be able to move on to the place he is meant to be."

The middle one moved forward and touched Adrian in the forehead and disappeared into the point of contact. The muscled man went next, followed by the beautiful woman. Adrian looked at the dragon and before it could touch him he asked, "What's your name?" It looked at him and came forward and laid its head on top of his. Before it fully disappeared, Adrian heard a growl, 'Toothless' go through his mind. That's when things started to darken, he fell over and the last thing he saw before he became unconscious was Kendra leaning over him.

Adrian woke up still on the floor with Kendra sitting cross-legged across and facing away from him, "Okay, Adrian your form should actually be having physical changes now. I know you're probably not going to like this but… take off your clothes."

"Why?"

"You, yourself, and I need to see any changes to your form and talk about things. Also, we need to figure out your gender, although it seems to me you're a male by your voice."

"Okay then, I guess." With that he started to strip and got to his underwear and straightened up. Kendra turned around with her cheeks slightly red, but when she got her first full look of him she was amazed- for his face he had a defined chin and jawline, fairly arched eyebrows, fairly high cheekbones, somewhat full lips, brilliant blue eyes that at times could seem dark blue or sapphire, and to add to it he had a light beard since he hadn't shaved before he was transported there; for his upper body (in her head she could just hear the girls going crazy if they saw him) he had a slight v-shape, an 8-pack of abs that was fairly toned, upper arms that could probably hold over 180lbs easy, strong forearms, a sturdy neck, and medium-going-on-large hands; for his lower body- that's where she stopped and looked up at Adrian, "I did mean everything you know." she continued to evaluate as Adrian blushed slightly and started to take off his underwear. For his lower body he had muscular thighs that would make Heracles proud, large calves, she noticed he had rather large feet, and when she moved up to those "special" areas she noticed that he was quite well endowed. Overall he was probably around 6ft.1in tall. Deciding to mess with Adrian a bit, she said, "Well you're definitely male with that monster," and pointed. He looked down to see what see was talking about and, while being surprised himself, he blushed. He knew it didn't matter quite so much since she was a part of him anyways, so it was like him embarrassing himself. He started wondering why the female pieces didn't have more sway in the whole thing, followed by: what would he look like as a woman?

It was then that Kendra noticed something odd, Adrian's body was changing while he was thinking. She watched as he shrunk down to around 5ft.8in., lost his muscle, grew out at the hips and chest areas, gained breasts, and lost his fine, as guys would call it, "tool". Her mouth dropped through it all and she realized that Adrian could morph into a different gender. When Adrian was finished he looked down at himself in astonishment, how did he turn into a woman? He realized after a moment that it wasn't just a question thought in his head, but also something Kendra just asked. He responded, "I have no idea, but I want to change back. I mean, I was thinking about why the female pieces didn't hold more sway over my gender and I started thinking about what I might look like as a woman, but I only look like what I was thinking. Maybe I did it by thinking about it? Hang on, I want to try something." He stopped, closed his eyes, and began picturing himself as Toothless and could feel his body start to change. When he opened his eyes he was looking through slitted eyes and could feel wings on his back.

"Wow, so you can morph depending on you thought, but the question I have is: can you get back to your original form by just unfocusing on what you want to be or do you have to focus on becoming your original?"

To answer her question Adrian focused on being back in his original "male form" and once he was back to his human form he answered, "I have to focus on becoming my original."

"Well, that's interesting, but now we have to test something…"

Adrian guessed that it wasn't something he'd be comfortable with and queried, "What is it this time?"

"I have to test your fertility, see if there's any health problems-I'll need a stool sample of course- and I'll need to watch you as your transformation may be incomplete and drastic changes could still occur. Also-"

"I thought you said I had no physical form so I couldn't have waste to get rid of?"

"That was before you absorbed all those soul pieces, I've found that you have actually taken on a physical form, but that you're still changing and have yet to figure out what permanent form you'll have. But continuing, I'll also need to help you find any possible abilities you may have, like the morphing ability," finishing, she scribbled down a few notes on his features and the morphing ability, but she looked back up and asked Adrian to turn around. She recorded what features she observed- his back was very well-muscled, his glutes were very good and probably filled out his shorts nicely, he had a good stance, and his neck and shoulders were muscled proportionately to his body, and he had a very nice back.

"Well Adrian, I'm going to give you some privacy. Leave a stool sample in this," she said holding up a container, "and a urine sample in this cup." With that she walked out, leaving Adrian to do his business.


	4. Chapter 4

**Huzzah! The Author is updating! Okay, so I'm a bit excited to keep going in this story, soo... I've decided to cancel any reference hunts and not do them anymore. I haven't gotten much response to them, so they're kind of pointless, but I will say that I still need/want to have you peoples giving me feedback and your OCs/yourselves (the format for those are in chapter three).  
**

 **Enjoy this new chapter!**

* * *

"Adrian! Adrian... Adrian? Where are you?" Adrian woke hearing loud yells from Kendra and shook his head to clear the fuzziness of sleep from his mind. He wondered why Kendra would be searching for him at this hour. He was just hoping to catch a few more minutes rest when Kendra walked in.

"Oh, you're still in bed. I thought you'd be somewhere else... Well get up sleepyhead, you've gotten enough sleep over the past day and a half!" Kendra exclaimed, excited due to some of the unexpected results coming from the tests on Adrian's samples she conducted the day before. As she listened to him grumbling, something about banshees not needing to be so loud and that they should let him sleep just a few more minutes, she looked down at the test results in her hand, ' _Boy is Adrian going to be surprised…'_

"If you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you weren't so cheerful and energetic in the morning."

Kendra just smiled and replied, "Oh, but just wait until I'm absorbed by you! You'll be just as energetic _every_ _morning_ _._ Besides, it's not morning. It's afternoon."

"No it isn't-" he looked at the clock. 12:36, lunchtime, "Oh…" He looked up sheepishly, "Nevermind."

"Uh huh, that's what I thought. Anyways, I got the results from the tests on the samples you gave me."

Before she could continue Adrian interrupted her, "Wait. I'm confused. How did you even test it? I'm pretty sure I never saw any equipment for that sort of thing."

"Oh, did I forget to tell you? My bad, but the thing is; when something is needed to move our little story along, this place changes to suit it. It's how I knew you would be able to 'relieve' yourself. Bathrooms just appeared."

"Oh, I see. Now, my results?"

"Hmm, oh right. Well here let me just read the results to you;

 **Blood-AB-, slightly low sodium levels indicated, slight radioactivity**

 **present-subject may have superhuman abilities- anomaly present-will be further**

 **explained in fertility**

 **Stool- indicates very good health and no intestinal issues**

 **Urine- Slightly low sodium levels or subject just drank a large amount of water,**

 **miniscule fragments of diamond found- a strange anomaly- and no sign of**

 **disease**

 **Saliva- anomalies in DNA indicate high genetic variances or optional genetic**

 **Change and other anomalies will be further explained in fertility**

 **Semen/Overall Fertility-subject is extremely fertile and has incredibly strong**

 **sperm, possibility of being able to pass on any abilities present, suspected**

 **anomalies in blood and DNA indicate possibility for subject to-"**

She stopped there, "Well, what about those anomalies?" Adrian asked.

"Uhh, the text just stops there. Huh, I thought there was more than that… It might not be that important, but give me another sample of your blood and saliva and I'll test them again." She waited as Adrian spit in a test tube and then she drew some of his blood. She walked out of the room leaving Adrian to his own devices. Adrian's stomach rumbled, ' _I guess I'll see if I can find some food.'_ He walked out of the room to see if he could find a kitchen or something.

Turning around a corner Adrian walked down a hallway he hadn't seen before. Preoccupied with his thoughts, he didn't notice as he walked somewhat rushed right into a metal door. His face impacted on the door with a slight clang and he backed up holding his head, "Ow," looking up he saw 'Kitchen' displayed on the door, "Well that's convenient. I guess she was telling the truth." He walked in and went right to the fridge. Opening it up, he found one of his favorite foods, lasagna. He took it out and turned around to find a microwave. He put the dish inside and warmed up the lasagna for three minutes. He looked around while waiting for his food. He noticed that there was everything a kitchen in a normal house would have, such as a dishwasher, blender, and toaster. Before long, the microwave finished with a short beep.

"A kitchen? Adrian must be hungry." Adrian turned hearing Kendra come in before he opened the microwave and took out the moderately steaming lasagna. "Oh, you're in here already. Anyways, once you're done meet me outside we need to discuss your travel to your soulmates' location." She walked out of the kitchen, likely heading straight to where she wanted to meet Adrian.

Adrian finished rather quickly and ran to find Kendra. He found her outside the building, which he observed to just be a squat, square, sepia building, looking at a couple sheets of paper. She looked up when he started walking towards her, "Okay Adrian, we might have a slight problem with me helping you figure out any of your abilities. It seems that there is only two opportunities you'll have to reach your soulmates in their universe and only on is safe for you. Only problem is, you'd only have tonight left since the first opportunity is safest and occurs 'tomorrow'. Unless you want to end up a mangled mess in the second opportunity?" Adrian quickly shook his head, "No? I didn't think so. Well the tests on your blood and saliva will be done by then so no worries, but I'm sorry to say you'll have to figure out any other abilities on your own. I wonder if you'll get my dancing skills… Maybe, but you may not even use them. Hmmm…Hey!" She stooped down and picked something up when she spotted it next to her. It was an orange cat that Adrian realized he had forgotten about in all the 'soul pieces' madness. Kendra looked at him and asked "And who are you mister cuteness."

Adrian was just going to say his name when the cat... spoke? "My name is Bilbo and I'm Adrian's companion, and you are?" Kendra and Adrian just stared at him with their mouths open in surprise, especially considering his accent, distinctly British. Bilbo, looking between the two of them quickly, "Oh, do close your mouths before something flies in." This resulted in Adrian and Kendra quickly closing their mouths.

"Umm, my name's Kendra, but how can you talk?" Kendra spoke after recovering from her shock at the cat talking.

"Oh that's easy really, several of my 'soul pieces' had the capabilities of speech, but I have no idea where I get my accent."

"Bilbo," the cat looked at Adrian, "that… is… brilliant!"

"Well, thank you my friend, but please, don't let me stop your conversation. After all I'll be going with you to your soulmates' universe too."

Adrian looked up at Kendra with a questioning glance to which she answered, "Actually, I was finished. Just be sure that you meet me here tomorrow at two in the afternoon when the portal will open."

"Okay." With that, Adrian picked up Bilbo, who turned into a white, snowy owl, and had him perch on his shoulder. He walked off talking to Bilbo about being able to morph. The last thing Kendra heard before they got inside the building was Adrian saying, "Yeah, I found out by accidentally morphing into a woman." She shook her head and walked inside.

* * *

 _The Next Day_

Adrian woke up with something large sleeping between his legs. He sat up with a yawn remembering how long into the night he had talked with Bilbo to catch up on the time he wasn't able to talk. He glanced at the clock as he pet Bilbo's soft, orange fur. It was 9;35 in the morning so Adrian got up and glanced inside dresser, which he had noticed last night when he needed to change into something more comfortable, for some new clothes. He found a tight black T-shirt , a pair of blue jeans, some socks, a pair of boxer-briefs, and a brown leather jacket, which brought up a strange memory of digging in a pond for a plant. What was its name? He was trying to remember, it started with a K, but he gave up when it didn't come to mind. He walked into the bathroom to change, everything fit perfectly. Looking around as he walked out of the bathroom, he spotted a nice pair of black sneakers that, unsurprisingly, fit perfectly.

He turned around to wake Bilbo to find his companion to be awake and staring at him. Somehow Bilbo whistled, "Well, I must say, you look good Adrian. I'm pretty sure you'll have plenty of people taking peeks at you." Adrian just chuckled and walked away, knowing Bilbo would follow. Bilbo, not wanting to try to walk with Adrian in his smaller cat form, morphed into his yellow lab form which is one of the reasons why he could talk- it had a collar around its neck allowing it speech- and quickly caught up to Adrian.

They wandered around most of the day, sometimes in their original forms and sometimes not. It eventually reached two o'clock and they headed to meet up with Kendra. They got outside and found Kendra walking back and forth, thinking. "What'cha thinkin about?" Adrian asked, startling her and causing her to trip. As she started to fall, Adrian caught her by the hand and held her steady, but that was when Kendra looked at Adrian with a big 'oh no' face, "What's wrong?" Adrian asked confused.

"You're touching me." Adrian was confused for a second before realizing what she meant. Adrian gasped, letting go, and wondered what was going to happen, even if his subconscious was thinking ' _well duh, you're going to absorb her'_

"Okay Adrian, I need you to listen to me, there's not much time. When the portal shows up, run through it as fast as you can with Bilbo. Take this," Kendra said placing a sheet of paper in Adrian's hand, "and be sure to use protection if you end up in bed with someone."

"Well I don't think I'll need to, I'm gay. You know that, right"

"Still… use protection, you'll see why. Be safe, because I'm going to die with you if you do." Finishing she kissed him on the cheek and faded away to her face until she finally smiled and was fully absorbed by Adrian. That was when Adrian felt an enormous shaking in the ground beneath him and he looked down at Bilbo to see him in a small mouse form. He scooped him up and put him in his pocket. Looking up he saw it a swirling mass of colors he ran at it and came out on the other side with a crack. That was when he fell.

Looking to the side he realized he had just come out of the portal at the top of a skyscraper and was now falling to the street. He closed his eyes, knowing it was the end. He didn't realize that his jacket was miraculously slowing him down, before he hit… something soft?

* * *

 **Ooh! What's going to happen next? Will Adrian find those he belongs with? Will the first Avengers movie start soon?**

 **Find out in the next chapter!**

 **Adrian Leeson- "Why are you asking rhetoric questions now? You could've been doing them the whole time. *Mutters* Stupid author..."**

 **The Author- "Excuse me! I was just trying to be a bit more interesting. Plus, I'm newer to Fanfiction. Don't make me have you be in an accident that turns you into a female permanently for your insolence!"**

 **Adrian Leeson- "I didn't say anything!" *panic is setting in.***

 **The Author- "Uh huh, that's what I thought. Now, no more talking; I'm trying to end this chapter!"**

 **Please Review, Favorite, or Follow my story if you like it so far! Have a nice day and I will see you... In the next chapter! Buh-bye! (couldn't resist) High fives all around!**


	5. Chapter 5

**_Yay! I'm updating! Yeah! Anyways, sorry this is a long time coming, but I was severely lacking in motivation for some reason. I am reinvigorated though, but I'm still waiting for people to submit any OCs or themselves (format in chapter three). Seriously, I've had over 700 people look at this fanfic and not one submitted an OC or themselves. I hope to get some sooner or later, but I don't know if people even read my Author's Notes..._**

 ** _Anyways, read and enjoy and I'll continue at the end!_**

* * *

 _New York City_

Steve Rogers was walking when he heard a loud crack above him, looking up he saw someone falling towards him. He quickly readied himself to catch the person. He watched the person as it seemed they were somehow slowing to a more manageable level. He was ready when the person landed in his arms with a slight 'oof!' He looked down at the person as they blinked owlishly up at him in surprise.

Before Steve could say anything the stranger spoke up, "Well, hello! My name's Adrian, but I guess I should be asking after the name of my savior?" Steve felt a strange tingle under his arm and he felt something there, at the back of his mind, like something speaking quietly, " _MINE,"_ but he ignored both things, answering, "Uh… my name's Steve, Steve Rogers. Are you alright? That was quite the fall."

Steve noticed Adrian's eyes widening, "You-You're… Oh, sorry. Umm actually, I'm perfectly fine, surprisingly," he stopped, looking down while Steve wondered what Adrian was going to say after he had said his name, "Umm… could you put me down?"

Steve started as he realized he was, surprisingly, still holding the tall and muscular man in his arms. He quickly set him down while blushing. "Thank you. Now, might I ask where you're going so late tonight?" Adrian asked as he started walking next to Steve.

"I was just walking to the gym," Steve answered, noticing how gracefully Adrian walked. ' _He reminds me of a dancer.'_ Without thinking Steve added, "Are you a dancer?"

Stopping Adrian said, "Ah, sleepless night? And no, I'm not a dancer, why?"

Ignoring the first question Steve said, "You remind me of a dancer. Do you dance?"

"To be honest, I've never really danced before... with anyone anyways," Adrian answered.

"Do you mind me asking why?" Steve asked, somewhat curious.

"I don't know," Adrian tried to think of a reason as he trailed off, "I guess I just haven't found the right partner." Steve stopped, causing Adrian to stop as well, "Is something the matter Steve?"

"No, no I'm fine," Steve answered distractedly causing Adrian to look at him with a disbelieving glance, "Are you sure? You seem distracted."

"I'm fine," he quickly walked off, leaving Adrian behind, and entered the gym in a hurry, forgetting to ask Adrian about his surprise when Steve said his name. He didn't notice that he felt worse the farther he got from Adrian.

' _Huh,'_ Adrian thought, ' _he never even asked me where I came from or what happened. Wait, am I now the cause of what causes some of his flashbacks in his 'punching bag scene'? Actually, what I want to know is why Kendra never warned me about what would happen. Wait, where's Bilbo? I went through the portal holding him…'_ He walked farther away from the site of his almost death looking for Bilbo and never noticed the two black cars that pulled up where Steve had caught him or the few people who were out staring at him, transfixed.

 _S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier_

Maystin Hilkson was watching his monitor, which showed any anomalies or occurrences on Earth that have similarities to the frequencies that showed yesterday when Loki came through the tesseract 'doorway,' they didn't want another homicidal bastard on the loose, and enjoying his fresh hot coffee. He probably should've set his cup down before he started and put on his headphones, since as soon as he did an incredibly loud noise indicating a large anomaly burst through his headphones causing him to jump and spill his hot coffee all over his lap and front. Wincing at the heat, but knowing he'd probably get into some sort of trouble for not reporting the disturbance, he quickly located the disturbance's position and ran to the person currently in charge. It was Agent Hill since Nick Fury was on his way to recruit Captain Rogers.

"Agent Hill, I must report that a large anomaly or disturbance occurred on or above Perry Street, New York City. Its frequencies are very close to those that Loki caused and they indicate a portal." He ran away before she responded to clean himself up. He missed Hill ordering several agents, including his life-partner, to head to Perry Street and subdue anyone located there.

Several agents were crowded into two black cars and hurriedly drove to Perry Street where the possible portal would've opened up. They sat in silence as they rode and prepared themselves for anything to happen. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for Adrian), there was no being located at the spot, "Well, maybe the computers just glitched?" One of the agents said in a questioning voice, slipping off his helmet.

"Shut it, Blare, those computers are smarter than you'll ever be. They are some of SHIELD's best and most advanced computers, so don't be a dolt and question if they 'glitched'," a second agent said condescendingly before slapping the agent, Johnny Blare, in the back of the head causing his head to jerk forward.

"Gerard, I'm not stupid, I was only coming up with a reason. Anyways, no computer is infallible," Blare retorted rubbing the back of their 's when Adrian showed up, searching for Bilbo, and stopped when he spotted the group of agents wearing gear and helmets or black sunglasses with suits, "Oh, my bad. Sorry to interrupt, I'll come back later to search."

"Stop right there! Who are you and what are you doing here?" One of the other agents yelled when Adrian went to turn around.

"Oh I'm Ryan and well, I was just looking for my cat, he kind of ran off a couple minutes ago," Adrian half-lied while morphing his appearance sensing they weren't good news for him or Bilbo.

"And your cat's name is?

"Bilbo. He's orange and has very soft fur."

"Blare! Help Mr. Ryan here find his cat! We don't need a civilian here." The agent who said this ordered, and one of the geared up agents came forward without their helmet on.

"Alright, sir. Let's find your cat." Adrian started searching, having no way to get away from the agent. He was surprised when he looked in one of the garbage cans, as he was throwing away a piece of plastic, to see a small rhino creature with wings. What was it called again? A raggant, that's it! Adrian nodded his head, but quickly caught himself and whispered, "Bilbo! Is that you?"

"No," the raggant started replying. _Oh no, here comes the sarcasm,_ "I'm just some other raggant, not the creature that is the only thing capable of being me in this universe. Get me out of here I hurt my wing!"

Surprised at Bilbo's only slightly scathing sarcastic tone, Adrian responded, "Can't you just transform-Oh I'm just searching the garbages, you never know, he could be in one of these- Bilbo! Turn into your original form!" Bilbo seemed to grimace, if grimacing was possible for a raggant, but he focused and soon a soft, orange cat took his place. "I found him! Thank you for assisting me Agent Blare… Might I ask what you're doing at the base of that building?"

Agent Blare glanced at him dubiously, "I am required not to tell you sir. We'd like it if you left the area immediately." He hesitated though when he looked up and saw Adrian in his 'original form', as Adrian had undone his looks out of some discomfort.

There's one thing Adrian didn't know he had because he hadn't really been around anyone but him: in his original form he was intoxicating in a way. Any person to be shown his true form since Adrian had come into contact with his soulmate, and hadn't truly connected to both, would be compulsed to be near or do things for him. This would eventually disappear once he found and formed a bond with his soulmates. His actual looks didn't help either; when he'd been walking on the street, several curious, 'straight', guys bent and lusted after him, they didn't even get a good look at his face. Adrian didn't know any of this of course, so was surprised when he saw a look of lust and awe enter the agent's eyes, "Actually, I think I can make an exception for you. One of the SHIELD helicarrier computer junkies got readings of a possible portal that resembles those of the portal that the bastard Asgardian, Loki, came through early today, so we were sent down to investigate and apprehend any lifeforms in the area that aren't human or belonging to Earth."

Curious about the agent's change, Adrian decided to investigate further, "What exactly is SHIELD up to? Tell me everything you know." Surprisingly, the agent did, and by the end of the whole spiel, Adrian knew more of the inner workings of SHIELD. Plus, he learned new fighting concepts and got fighting tips as a bonus. He didn't think he needed to hear about how to pleasure some person called Maystin though. _If memory serves, this never happened in the movies or comics, but right now, or pretty soon, I'm guessing Nick Fury will be conferring with Captain Rogers… My soulmate, that had caught me. Wow._ Adrian's thoughts came to a halt though when he heard the group of agents calling for Johnny Blare, mockingly yelling that Maystin probably missed him. Adrian quickly morphed back, and Agent Blare snapped out of his trance, not remembering a thing beyond telling Ryan to leave the area, "It is best you leave the premises, sir."

Satisfied with his new information, he winked at the agent, "Sure. Oh and say hello to that Maystin for me. I hope you guys have a fantastic relationship." He innerly grimaced at his blunder.

"Thanks! I met him four months ago after a mission, I found him irresistible and... Wait! How did you know that?" Blare looked at Adrian with suspicion.

"Oh, uh, your fellow agents are calling for you and they just mockingly yelled that a Maystin would miss you. I just used logic, really," he said, quickly thinking. _I didn't somehow cause you to tell me how best to pleasure him by licking_ _those_ _certain areas,_ he thought to himself.

"Really?" He stopped, hearing them this time, "Oh! Well, Ryan, I must say it was interesting helping you find your cat. Maybe if we see each other again sometime I can tell you about how I met my Maystin," he reached over to pet Bilbo, causing him to purr, "And you can tell me this soft guy's origin story."

He turned and jogged back to where his fellow agents were clustered before Adrian could say anything else. "Jeez, and I was just going to tell him my name isn't Ryan."

 _At a gym The Author is currently too lazy to give a name at the moment_

 _New York, New York._

Punching one of the many punching bags, Steve Rogers was trying to find something to unleash his stress on as he kept having quick flashbacks.

' _Gunshots and bombs go off as he races through a wooded area with several army-men. He raises his shield as bombs go off somewhere to his left.'_

His punches were getting stronger in force as his anxiety and anger increased. PTSD is a bastard thing.

' _He's shot at, but the blue beam bounces off his shield.- He knees an enemy fighter in the face, causing them to flip backwards.'_

Was this brought on by Adrian's previous comment? Steve didn't know for sure, but he did know that it made him think even more about Peggy. Bringing forth faster, harder punches as the memory hit.

' " _There's not enough time! I gotta put her in the water!" He's in the HYDRA plane.'_

His punches grew increasingly harder and faster as he relives the moments.

' _The plane goes flying down, down.- The Tesseract- "You won't be alone," The voice of Peggy as her picture in his pocket watch flashes into his mind.- The pilot's chair he's sitting in.'_

The punches kept coming, faster, harder, but the punching bag miraculously held.

' " _Oh my God! This guy's still alive!" A voice Steve hears while still frozen in a coma.'_

Steve finally hit the punching bag hard enough that it broke off the ceiling in a puff of brown dust and went flying. Calming down somewhat and breathing somewhat laboriously, Steve stood still for a moment before turning and walking to a row of six more punching bags. He picked up a maroon colored one and hooked it to ceiling and started punching it again with his wrapped hands.

"Trouble sleeping?" Steve paused, turning after hearing the voice of Director Nick Fury coming from the doorway, characteristically dressed in a black suit.

He started walking forward and Steve continued punching saying, "Slept for 70 years, Sir. Think I've had my fill."

"Then you should be out;celebrating, seeing the world" At this Steve stopped, and looked at him. He seemed to be assessing Fury.

He walked to his bag and started unwrapping his hands "When I went under; the world was at war. When I woke up they said we won. They didn't say what we lost."

Fury stepped closer, "We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently."

"You here with a mission, sir?" Steve asked looking to the side at Fury.

"I am."

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it." Fury stepped forward and handed an open file to Steve.

Looking down at the file he recognized the photo of the Tesseract and some information to the right of the photo as he sat down, "Hydra's secret weapon."

Fury again spoke, "Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think: the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited, sustainable energy, That's something world sorely needs."

"Who took it from you?" Steve asked, handing the file back.

"He's called Loki. He's… not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything could surprise me," he stood up.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong."

While Nick was talking, Steve had walked to the row of punching bags, picked one up, and started carrying it out on his shoulder as Fury told him, "There's a de-briefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment."

Steve started walking to the door to leave when he heard the director ask, "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

Continuing to leave out the door, Steve called back, "You should've left it in the ocean."

* * *

 **And there's another chapter complete! Aw Yeah! Anyways, follow or favorite if you like this and please don't forget to review. Any helpful critique is appreciated. Plus, I love hearing from the readers and I wish to see some OCs!**

 **Have a grand day!**

 **-The Author (AKA Allin)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Alright, Alright! Another chapter! Woohoo! Super fast on this one huh? Anyways, I is still waiting for you brilliant and imaginative people to send in OCs or yourselves to be in this or other stories. The format is in chapter three.**

 **Have fun and enjoy this new chapter!**

* * *

 _Underwater, near New York City_

A section of pipe was cut off a group of wires by a laser coming from none other than Iron Man himself. The red and gold armored man smoothly put a curved, electronic object on the line of wires. The device twisted around, attaching to the wires, and lengthened to attach to the two points where the pipe had been cut. In its middle, was a few glowing, blue rings.

As soon as the device was clearly attached, Tony Stark (well known as Iron Man) turned and launched upwards, coming out of the water near a cruise boat with a large splash. He stopped for a moment in the air before rocketing to his left towards the Big Apple. As he flew he spoke, "Good to go on this end. The rest is up to you."

"You disconnected the transmission lines; Are we off the grid?" Pepper Potts spoke to Stark while he watched a live film of her on his display in his suit.

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining, clean energy"

"Well, assuming the arc reactor takes over and actually works."

"I assume. Light her up." He watched as Stark Tower gradually lit up from the bottom to the top, finally stopping at the large 'Stark' on the building.

"How does it look?" Pepper asked.

"Like Christmas, but with more… me."

Feeling some excitement Pepper said, "We gotta go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press. I'm in DC tomorrow, I'm working on the zoning for the next three buildings."

"Pepper," Tony started, "You're killing me at the moment. Remember: Enjoy the moment." He hovered above the balcony of Stark Tower.

"Get in here and I will."

The boosters turned off and he landed. He walked as the machinery disassembled his suit. He didn't get far before Jarvis alerted him, " _Sir, Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D is on the line."_

"I'm not in," Stark said as the helmet came off, "I'm actually out."

There was a pause up until half the suit was off of Tony's body, revealing the arc reactor, and Jarvis spoke again, " _Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting."_

"Grow a spine, Jarvis. I've got a date."

He walked inside as the last boot came off and headed in a loop towards where Pepper Potts was sitting looking at a display of the tower. She spoke, "Levels are holding steady," she bit her lip, "I think."

"Of course they are. I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question: How does it feel to be a genius?" He walked slightly past her.

"Well, ha, I wouldn't really know now, would I?"

"What do you mean?" He said as she turned to face him, "All this… came from you."

"No, all this came from that," she said, tapping the arc reactor in his chest.

"Give yourself some credit. Please. Stark Tower is your baby, give yourself… 12 percent of the credit."

"12 percent?"

"An argument could be made for 15."

"12 percent, my baby?" She said walking to a circular area that had some chairs, a long, brown-cushioned seat, and a table with champagne glasses and bucket holding champagne, wine, or some other spirit.

"Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And, sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you."

"Ohhh," she said, pouring the drink into two glasses.

"My private elevator-"

"You mean _our_ elevator?"

"-it was teeming with sweaty workmen," sitting down and accepting a glass, he added, "I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?"

"Not gonna be that subtle."

"I'll tell you what. Next building's gonna say 'Potts' on the tower."

"On the lease."

"...Call your mom, can you bunk over?"

Their light banter was interrupted by Jarvis, " _Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overwritten."_

From Tony's cell came a voice, "Mr. Stark we need to talk."

Tony picked it up and monotonically said, "You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message."

"This is urgent."

"Then leave it urgently," he stopped when the elevator doors opened revealing Phil Coulson hanging up, "Security breach! That's on you."

The second part was directed to Pepper who turned with a smile, "Phil! Come in"

"'Phil'?"

"I can't stay," Agent Coulson said.

"Uh, his first name is 'Agent,'" Tony claimed standing up along with Pepper.

Feeling more hospitable than Mr. Stark, Pepper said, "Come on in. We're celebrating."

"Which is why he can't stay," Tony hissed while smiling.

Phil pulled a device out from under his arm, "We need you to look this over as soon as possible"

Tony was shaking his head, "I don't like being handed things."

"That's fine, because I love to be handed things. Let's trade," Pepper inserted, taking the device and giving her glass to Coulson before taking Tony's glass and handing him the device, "Thank you."

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday," Tony said, not wanting to deal with a Shield agent.

"This isn't a consultation."

"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper quickly caught herself by adding, "Which I know nothing about."

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify," Tony said, putting the device together and walking back to where the Tower had been displayed earlier

"I didn't know that either."

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed; don't play well with others"

"That I did know."

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore," Phil quipped.

"Whatever. Miss Potts," Stark gestured for her, "Got a sec?"

Pepper looked at Coulson and, holding up her index finger, whispered, "Half a mo." She then turned and walked to Tony as he typed into the device.

"You know, I thought we were having a moment," Tony started when Pepper got there.

"I was having 12 percent of a moment," she told him. ' _There's that 12 percent come back to bite me,'_ Stark thought to himself before Pepper continued, "This seems serious. Phil seems pretty shaken."

"How would you know this? Why is he 'Phil'?"

Pepper ignored him and asked, "What is all this?"

"This is uh, this," he said selecting something on the device before moving his hands up so files on the device were displayed as holograms. His attention was immediately on the video of the Hulk to his left, but Pepper looked in amazement at the other holographic files showing things such as Captain America's shield and the Destroyer.

Exhaling to calm herself, Pepper spoke, "I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight."

"Tomorrow."

"You have homework. You have a lot of homework."

"Well, what if I didn't?"

"If you didn't?"

"Yes"

"You mean when you've finished? Well, um, then," she leaned forward and whispered something that obviously made Tony excited since his mouth dropped open. Coulson looked away in discomfort before Pepper finished and Tony said, "Square deal, flash eight." The two kissed and Pepper walked away talking to Phil, but Tony was distracted upon spotting the tesseract, so he doesn't clearly hear what about and therefore missed Coulson saying it was nice to see he wasn't sick anymore. He grabbed the hologram version of the tesseract and seemed to come to some major realization.

* * *

 _The Streets of New York City_

' _Step. Step. Step. What is that man wearing? Step. Step. I need to figure out if I have anymore abilities since Kendra never got to help me discover any more abilities. If I have any… Why do so many men look at me so lustfully? It's a bit creepy. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you just came in contact with your soulmate idiot. Why would that- Oh, the bonding factor, okay. I get it now, that must be why Agent Blare had been so forthcoming when I asked my questions. So until I actually seal the bond with my soulmate with a kiss, most other people will be driven to lust by my true form. What is that supposed to achieve? It's just an effect of not bonding with a soulmate to answer my own question. Why am I having a semi-conversation in my head? I guess it's a way of adjusting to the new info. I've received. How else would I know about the bonding factor? Jeez…. I should find a place where I can try to find any abilities I may have or to see what I've gained or lost in my takeup.'_ Adrian was thinking quietly to himself before he bumped into an elderly man and caused him to lose balance. The man tried to catch his balance, but all that succeeded in doing was turning him and getting him on the street, too far away for Adrian to grab. All Adrian could do was watch as a car came speeding down the road with its driver distracted and hit the elder with a loud crack. Adrian rushed to get to the man and picked him up, he didn't even realize the hitter was driving away until he looked up with the man secure in his arms. It was surprisingly easy, even though the elder man probably weighed over 180 pounds with his 'pot belly'. Looking the elder over he noticed blood coming from his nose and mouth, some of his ribs looked broken, and Adrian realized his leg was at an odd angle, but the man was still breathing. "Hold on, I'll get you to a hospital," he said as he started running, with the man in a position to prevent too much jarring, toward a hospital he had noticed as he walked.

It actually didn't take long since the distance to the hospital wasn't too far, Adrian had only passed around a hundred buildings, and Adrian's running was discovered to be very fast. He got to the hospital within five minutes. As soon as he got into the ER several nurses came forward with a gurney and loaded the elder onto it. They walked quickly away, after asking what had happened and who he was, of course. Adrian left before anyone could come grab him for questioning. He didn't want anyone to look into his mysterious appearance on this world, but he stopped when he remembered that cameras were catching everything in public. He didn't want there to be anything linking him to events of late. Why couldn't something just erase any appearances of him on cameras unless he actually wanted to be caught on film? It'd be so much easier!

He jumped when a nearby street camera made a series of loud clicking noises and its lens fogged over somehow. ' _Alright, that indicates my 'cloaking' ability. Wait how do I even know? Wait, that's so stupid! All the things that I know come from the combination of my soul pieces. It makes sense… Now what should I do? I mean, I do have to find shelter of some sort don't I? Well, I'll head for a forest or park if I can… Oooh! I'll go to Central Park! Maybe I can figure stuff out there.'_ Adrian promptly headed towards where his instincts said Central Park must be. ' _Interesting ability to have suddenly manifest itself. That, and the instinctual knowing of places. Unless one of my soul pieces had lived in Central Park? Ah yes, I think one was in New York for about a year and had killer instincts,'_ Adrian thought to himself as he walked. Sooner or later though, he'd see that man again.

* * *

 **BOOM! Another chapter finished and up. If you liked it, punch that favorite button in the face: Like a Boss! And I will see all you dudes IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!**


	7. Chapter 7

**_Hey yall! I have another chapter for you! Big thanks_** to ** _Brazilwolf who submitted a great OC that I have plans for. Anyways, if you want more info. read the ending Author's note._**

 ** _Enjoy! I don't own anything except any character's I create myself._**

* * *

 _Central Park_

"Okay, here I am. Central Park! It's so beautiful! Oh look, there's the statue of Balto! I wasn't sure if it'd be here considering it's the Marvel Universe. Now I just have to find a very secluded area and some form of shelter. Maybe over that way?" Adrian was in one of the less visited areas of Central Park, talking rather rapidly to himself and searching for a pretty good spot to make some sort of hideout. He was just about to give up and go look elsewhere when he tripped on a suddenly appearing tree root. Fortunately for him, there was plenty of bushes and dead leaves to cushion his fall down a decline he hadn't seen earlier in his search.

His velocity was stopped very suddenly by a cluster of rocks at the bottom and his back hitting one dead center. "Oof! Okay… There's a bit of a decline there. Now, what's down here?" He shakily got up, dusted off his pants, and began making his way through the surprisingly dense underbrush towards a small cluster of trees. He figured there would be a clearing of sorts somewhere in it.

After a few laborious minutes of pushing through brush that seemed completely tangled at one moment, and easy to walk through the next, Adrian stumbled into a small clearing. Apparently his assumption was accurate. Now all he needed to do was figure out some shelter, so he started searching around the nearby area for sticks to make some sort of makeshift roof. The greenery around the clearing held little to no dead branches or things Adrian could take without harming the living plants. Still, he picked up what he could and made sure not to do harm to any of the surrounding plants, his reluctance to kill and/or harm things making a bit of an appearance.

 _This is NOT good. I thought there might be more wood than this,_ Adrian thought as he looked at his pitiful pile of perfect length sticks, _What can I do for shelter? I don't want to be seen from above or get wet if it rains… Plus, I've been in this universe a little over a day and haven't had anything over head... It's kind of peaceful here. The trees seem to be in a peaceful slumber, but the bushes shake in a fierce wind._ He had started walking along an animal created path he found, with his hand lightly brushing the trees and bushes, when he too felt the wind and shivered in cold. He didn't notice the plants slight lean towards him, nor the little tendrils that reached for his hand as he brushed by. The trees above him creaked, something was invigorating them. Nevertheless, Adrian was too distracted with his thoughts to notice.

What should he do? He didn't have proper materials for a shelter, nor was he willing to cut down branches or use bushes, they seemed too peaceful to be cut. Maybe he could go find some materials in the city? Well, then he would lose this spot and he didn't have money. He was back in the clearing trying to figure out how he would go about finding materials without harming the plants, which he was beginning to feel a strange connection to. Maybe he's just imagining things? The wind blew again, only this time it seemed less fierce than before and carried a strange purr-like noise, but how? It shouldn't be much different considering that he was in a clearing and the trees aren't any closer together. Right?

Wrong. He didn't know, but the plants and trees (having been invigorated to be able to make themselves have a much faster growth, emotions, and thought processes) were moving closer together to stop the cold and protect the person responsible for their enhanced animation. Adrian, in a moment of some frustration, fell backwards onto the ground. His fall was cushioned by the grasses quickly growing to create a somewhat soft pad. He watched the sky as he thought of what he could do, but his thinking was halted when the clouds he had been staring at flashed with lightning and the loud boom of thunder rang out.

"That's not good. I _need_ to get shelter before it rains! I have no way of getting it though and if I were to go elsewhere I'd end up in about the same situation. I'm not going into the city either. Why can't I make myself break some branches off the trees or something? It's strange, but I can't... It feels like going to cut someone's arm off, but they aren't the same! So, why do I feel this way? Brr… It's chilly. Not bad compared to when I was walking…" He trailed off into thought, just watching lightning flash above him and contemplating whether it'd be worth it to just sit in the rain and have the possibility of getting struck by lightning prominent.

Adrian looked towards the city and watched as rain began to fall in sheets towards him. He vainly covered his head as he sat up and waited for the downpour to soak him to the bone… Nothing? Surprised not to feel the cold water wrathfully pouring onto him, Adrian looked up. Where there had previously been an opening to the sky in the above branches was now like a roof. The trees surrounding the small clearing, being directed by Adrian's hands, had quickly moved their tips together and wove themselves into a seamless roof of sorts. _WHAT? How did that happen?_ He went to stand up in an attempt to get a somewhat closer look, but he met some slight resistance. Upon looking down he found that the grass around him had grown and was partly curled around his legs. He tried to stand again and met little resistance. The grass let him up, it hadn't even been trying to hold him down, and he looked down at where he had just been situated. _Wow._ The grass where he had been lying and then sitting had grown and looked a lot more healthy-green than the rest of the surrounding grass. _It's like the pollution from New York was wiped from it. Usually grass in or near cities is more of a dull green than wilder areas._ He suddenly felt the urge to test something.

He walked over to a tree and placed his hand on its trunk. He felt the wood shifting and he could feel the tree itself, from its roots absorbing moisture and nutrients to its tip where water was hitting it as it twined tightly with other trees. Adrian was so focused on feeling what the tree felt that he was surprised when a feminine voice spoke into his mind, " _Hello, little one. We all are eternally grateful for what you have done for us."_

 _What do you mean? I haven't done anything for you?_

There was a slight laugh and Adrian felt the tree under his hand vibrating with the laughter, " _Did you not already guess? Well, I wouldn't be able to do what I am right now if it weren't for you simply being around us. It seems you enable us 'plants', as you call us, to have human attributes and faster 'growth'. I am glad to tell you though that we will grow the way you want us to."_

 _I'm confused. What do you mean 'the way you want us to?'_

" _Do you recall what you did before our tree-tips intertwined? You directed us with your hands and will to be sheltered."_

 _Really?_ He looked at the hand he wasn't holding against the tree in surprise _Are you sure?_

" _Okay, I lied. We just twined our branches and tips together because that's_ normal _plant behavior in a storm! Gelda help me, that was a ridiculous question!"_

 _How can you have already developed an attitude? You're not even a few hours old… Nope, nevermind. Stupid question._

" _Figured it out did you? Sorry I'm just trying several personas. You should've seen when I was being all 'screamo'. I don't think the others were very happy about it though…"_

 _This is strange. I'm telepathically communicating with a tree who was 'screamo' only a short time ago… I wonder what other abilities I could possibly have..._

" _What was that?"_ Apparently the tree had gotten a bit distracted.

 _Oh, nothing. You need not worry about it. I have to leave soon though since I have to find a way to get money. I'll definitely have several plants though. I've always had a fondness of them._

There was no immediate response. Right when the tree was going to speak back the storm worsened and the noise was too much for Adrian. All he wanted was to be where it was quiet and safe. For some strange reason, Steve's face was what came to mind. Adrian felt a sharp cold run down his spine before all the trees around him changed, excepting the one he was touching. It was a completely different forest. There was still a bit of a storm, but that's not what held his attention.

No, the confrontation occurring not too far away from him was what was holding his attention. It seemed he'd just somehow teleported to the forest where Thor fought with Iron Man in the movie. He watched and realized that they were just starting talking to each other as he heard "-weareth her drapes?" a little distantly. He faintly heard the tree speaking into his mind, excited to be in a different forest. The trees around him stirred and felt the same effect the trees in the clearing had, but Adrian became more focused on the confrontation as they started fighting it out. He didn't move even as they got a bit closer, not noticing him in their fight. It wasn't until he was almost hit in the head with Mjolnir that he moved . He was luckily far enough away that the blast from Mjolnir hitting Steve's shield didn't cause much harm to him or his tree friend. Adrian watched them start walking away. When he realized he had no idea how to get back to New York, he decided he'd stow away on their transport somehow, but the tree stopped him by speaking, " _Before you go, take some of the seeds from me and plant them in your garden and I will become one of them once my current form dies."_

He swiped several of the seeds and walked after the group of superheroes. He felt a warmth as the tree excitedly interacted with the newly animated trees in the area. When he caught up to the group he watched as they boarded the plane or whatever it's called, Adrian couldn't quite recall. He realized his problem, they'd easily see him if he just snuck on. What could he do?

He was puzzling over that when the... helicraft started to close up after Steve walked inside. He hurried in thinking, _don't see me! Don't see me!_ Surprisingly, they didn't see him even though he was now standing right in front of them. They stared right through him, as if he wasn't there. Not even Loki, a self-called god, noticed him _._ Not wanting to push his luck and stay there in case his 'invisibility' wore off, he stepped to a clump of boxes and found a gap in the middle of them where he could sit out of anyone's sight.

* * *

They landed after a somewhat long but uneventful ride. Adrian stayed inside, waiting until everyone had left before stepping out from the boxes and walking to the cockpit. He looked at the controls and a memory flashed before him ' _He was in the pilot chair with his instructor next to him. They had just landed after he had conducted an impressive flight for his final test in flight school. The controls had become almost child's play to him, so there had been no problem acing the final test…'_

Looking over the console he knew that somehow he could fly this thing easily enough. He thought of his options: 1) Stay and likely get caught and never see the light of day. 2) Wait near the helicraft and probably wait forever to have someone fly with him in one. 3) Fly this helicraft off right away while they're adjusting and abandon it than walk the rest of the way to his previous hideout. He decided on option three, so slipped on a pair of gloves that were left on the craft and sat in the pilot's chair. He breathed as he adjusted the controls for takeoff. "Okay. It's ready. Just have to start it nice and easy."

There was a loud whirring as the craft started up and he turned it to takeoff. There was no one currently out on the landing/takeoff strip since the helicarrier had gone airborne and everyone was currently in the inner part of the ship. He easily accelerated and tilted the steering for takeoff. He slipped into the flying like he had been doing it for ages and not for the first time. He flew for quite some time until he was near New York City. He landed in a forest not too far away and shut off the aircraft. Picking up a nearby piece of paper and pen he quickly wrote out a note and left it on the console before leaving the craft and hiking the rest of the way to New York City. He quickly navigated the streets (with some interesting troubles followed by developments) and soon enough found himself back in Central Park. Now where was that clearing again?

* * *

 _S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier_

"Sir!"

Fury stopped when he heard an agent urgently addressing him, "What is it?"

"One of our helicraft has started an unauthorized takeoff. No one has boarded it so we've somewhat guessed that the autopilot might be malfunctioning and sending in data, but one of our men said he saw someone sitting in the pilot's chair."

"Figure out what's going on and if that craft takes off I want you to track it and call for me as soon as it lands. I'll send some people to apprehend whoever is in it. I don't want another possible hostile out there" Fury continued onward to Loki's holding cell. He arrived just as the door sealed shut on it.

Walking to some controls nearby he said, "In case it wasn't clear. You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass…" He pressed a button causing a hole to open up beneath the green-lit cell. As Loki stepped forward to look he shouted over the loud rush of air, "30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

He shut the hole and gestured to Loki, "ant," and then to the controls, "boot."

Loki gave a light, mocking chuckle, "It's an impressive cage, but not built- I think- for me."

"It was built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard," Loki looked to his right at the camera that Steve, Thor, Bruce, and Natasha were watching or hearing the encounter through, "A mindless beast makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me _very_ desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share." He looked at the camera again, but it seemed to affect Agent Hill, who was watching elsewhere, more. Loki continued, "And then to be reminded what real power is."

Fury quirked his lip and started to leave, "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." When he left, Loki turned and took a few steps towards the camera, and just stared…

* * *

 _A meeting room onboard the Helicarrier_

Steve, Natasha Romanov, Bruce, and Thor were watching and/or listening to Fury's confrontation with Loki, but the monitors clicked out as Steve watched Loki stare intensely at the camera.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Doctor Banner spoke up soon after.

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked, somewhat distracted, but no one noticed.

Thor easily answered as he was standing, "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people," he didn't notice Agent Hill step up behind him as he started walking forwards, "They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army," Steve paused, looking towards Natasha, "from outer space."

"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Bruce stated as he slid off his glasses.

Thor recognized the name, "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha spoke up, before shifting and saying worriedly, "along with one of ours."

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve quickly added, "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of could smell crazy on him"

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother," Thor lightly protested.

"He killed 80 people in two days," Natasha bluntly said, glancing at Thor.

"He's adopted."

Bruce spoke out, dissipating the moment of awkwardness, "I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium… What do they need Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," a voice came from a little bit to Bruce's right. It was Tony walking in with Agent Coulson. Before they separated Tony said to Phil, "I'm just saying pick a weekend, I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive... It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." The second part was directed to the group and Tony kept walking past Thor, stopping to tap his shoulder "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing," he continued walking towards Director Fury's command center. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and as long, as Loki wants.

"Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails," Tony spoke out once he got to the command center proper, causing those nearby to give him befuddled looks, "That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." His announcement caused Steve to look over at the accused and saw him hurriedly closing the game.

Covering his eye for a second, Tony asked, "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns."

"Sounds exhausting," he turned to type into one of the pads, "the rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density."

He paused, attaching a small attachment to the controls unnoticed, "Something to kick-start the cube."

Agent Hill skeptically asked, "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

Steve, snapped out of his distracted thoughts and asked, "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He would have to heat the cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce tried as an answer.

Tony added on, "Unless, Selvig has discovered how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, someone who speaks English."

Not used to such scientific speech Steve asked, "Is that what just happened?"

Tony shook Bruce's hand, "It's good to meet you Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a big fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous, green rage-monster."

"Thanks," Banner responded, flummoxed.

Fury walked in hearing the tail-end of the conversation, "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him."

Steve added, "I would start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys," Fury continued.

Confused, Thor asked, "Monkeys? I do not understand."

"I do," Steve interrupted quickly causing Tony to roll his eyes before Steve, satisfied, said, "I understood that reference."

Not wanting to deal with such triviality, Tony asked, "Shall we play, Doctor?"

"This way, sir."

Once they left, Fury walked up to Steve, "Captain, I have a task for you."

"What is it?"

"A few minutes after you landed, the very same helicraft you were in took off unauthorized with an unknown person inside. I just received a message that the craft is being prepared to land. Now, let's walk so I can tell you what I want you to do…"

They walked out and behind them everyone went to work on their computers. That's when Maystin surreptitiously looked around before turning back to his computer and restarting his game of Galaga.

* * *

 **Hooray! Another chapter finished! If you liked it, review, favorite, or follow if you want. I am accepting OCs from you readers and you can send in yourselves to be in this story or others. The format for them can be found in my author's note in chapter 3. Rock on!**

 **-The Author (A.K.A. Allin or AllinforHPDM-ATSSRBBCB-TEC-etc)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hooray! I is posting a new chapter! Isn't it grand? All right, down to business. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter because an OC I had sent to me is making its first appearance. I would like to thank fellow fanfiction lover Brazilwolf for the awesome OC they sent me. I hope you like how I decided to bring him into the story. If anyone else wants to submit an OC please feel free, but make sure to follow the format in my note in chapter three. I am happy to be getting such good things coming from you peoples, so read on!**

 **Disclaimer: I went through all the processing. I am not Stan Lee or anyone else who has rights to Marvel and the Avengers, so... yeah me no own anything Marvel or created by other peoples.**

 _S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier_

Steve was walking down the halls of S.H.I.E.L.D's large, flying helicarrier. Looking down, he re-read the note he had found after searching through the landed Quinjet S.H.I.E.L.D had tracked down.

 _To whomever finds this,_

 _I accidentally ended up in the forest several yards away from Thor, Tony, and Steve's confrontation earlier and hitched a ride in their helicraft. Surprising that I wasn't noticed, but that's irrelevant. Anyways, I didn't quite fancy being captured aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier, so used the same helicraft to leave. Again, I'm surprised it worked out, but, yet again, that is irrelevant. I'd just like to thank S.H.I.E.L.D for unwillingly letting me borrow their equipment momentarily. I didn't take any of your equipment or anything else in this thing that is of value. I hope this finds you in a good time, but that's unlikely with Loki and the Tesseract. Except I'm not supposed to know that… Anyways, would whoever finds this make sure it gets to S.H.I.E.L.D and then Steve? I know he's there... To Steve: I hope you haven't been too stressed in your situation and this finds you happy. Unfortunately, I'm aware of the Loki problem and how some of your fellow super-peoples may make you irritated. Heh, S.H.I.E.L.D is likely to be a bit frenzied by my knowledge and the likely fact that they will read this has come to mind. Anyways, I wish you luck in your upcoming fight! And thanks for the nice catch. See ya sometime soon!_

 _~A_

 _P.S. Isn't the helicraft supposed to be called a Quinjet? I recall it being called that from somewhere, but up to now I've referred to it as a 'helicraft,' but I think I'm going to stick with Quinjet. ._

Steve puzzled over the note. How did this person know so much? What catch? Still, Steve felt like something was there glaring right at him, but he couldn't figure it out. It frustrated him greatly, but he found his gaze drawn to the 'A' at the end. Who did he know that had a name starting with 'a'? That's when a face that had been haunting him ever since he met the person drifted to the forefront of his mind. Adrian. That's it! The catch reference even made sense then… How in the world did Adrian know any of that? How did he end up at their confrontation and how did Steve not notice him in the Quinjet? He'd keep the note to himself for now.

His mind kept returning to what he had viewed and experienced of Adrian. His Tesseract-looking eyes with their intense blue color and lighter, jagged, lightning shaped lines spread throughout them. How comfortable he had felt just holding him. How there was just a moment where he wanted to claim those beautiful red lips… Steve shook his head, not wanting those thoughts. He was frustrated with himself. Why was he so attracted to a man? Isn't that wrong? Such turmoil was going through Steve's head as he headed to see how far along Dr. Banner and Stark were in finding the cube, then he'd report to Fury about the Quinjet incident.

Steve's mind, no matter how hard he tried to resist, kept coming back to Adrian. He'd try to turn it back to the cube, his missions, or even his annoyance with Stark, but it'd keep going back to the feel of Adrian's warm body or how much he'd love to leave those lips swollen… NO! He can't have feelings for another man. It was against so much of what he had been raised on. His mind just made him more distracted, just like he was at the earlier meeting when they discussed the need for Iridium as a portal stabilizer. He was frustrated that just a simple person could make him so distracted with such improper thoughts. He had been attracted to a boy once before, but he had thought it was nothing until he found out it was wrong from so many people. That's when he turned away from it and tried to get involved with girls, and later women. In fact, Peggy was perfect for him to prove to himself that he wasn't mentally messed up in some way.

Steve was only just starting to feel less frustrated, more irritable, as he came upon the lab hearing Stark say, "No tension, no surprises" before he saw him prod Dr. Banner with something that made an electric shocking noise causing Dr. Banner to flinch, "Ow!"

Steve shouted, "Hey!"

Momentarily ignoring Steve, Tony leaned forwards asking Bruce, "Nothing?"

"Are you nuts?" Steve said walking in fully.

"Jury's out," Stark said glancing towards Steve before turning back to Banner to ask, "You really have a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve interrupted.

"Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doc."

The second part was directed at Dr. Banner who responded, "It's all right. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

Backing up a few steps to grab a hidden bag of blueberries Stark said, "You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve added.

In response, Stark said, "Do you think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy. Captain, he's ' _the'_ spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him, too. Isn't it?"

Tony's question was directed at Banner who glanced up from his work, "Uh… I just want to finish my work here, and…"

"Doctor?" Steve stopped Banner.

Bruce hesitated, taking off his glasses, before saying "'A warm light for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it."

"I think that was meant for you," Bruce said with a gesture towards Tony, before Stark held out his blueberries, offering Bruce some. Taking a handful, Bruce continued, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly-" Steve paused when Tony glanced at him before he just finished his thought, "building in New York?"

Bruce, ignoring Tony as he stared disgruntledly at Steve, said, "It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Bruce asked Tony.

"It's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"So why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files."

"I'm sorry," Steve said, "Did you say…"

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" Stark said holding out his bag of blueberries.

Ignoring the berries Rogers quipped, "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around."

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

Deciding against giving a response to Stark's statement Steve tried to change the subject, "I think Loki' to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."

"Following's not really my style."

"And you're all about style aren't you?"

"Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and, B, not of use?" Stark asked with an insult.

Bruce interjected before they'd start getting in a worse squabble, "Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."

Glancing from Bruce to Tony, Steve left the lab saying, "Just find the cube."

Once he got out of the lab he paused quickly reflecting on the conversation before he glanced about with a clenched jaw and headed down one of the halls of the helicarrier. He's just going to have to find out what Fury's trying to hide.

 _An Unknown location in an unknown world, galaxy, or universe_

Beams were flying over a beautiful creature's head as she ran from her previously peaceful home warren to keep the egg she was carrying safe. There was a group of strange, gray, humanoid creatures shooting at her with what she assumed was the intent to kill. She had to get her egg to safety or so much could go wrong! She dodged as the alien creatures' aims started getting more accurate. When she was told by that figure to not give up on what she thought was a dud egg and that it was so, so special... Well, to say the least, she was at first doubtful. After finding a little alcove that held some rocks, she took form of a sleeping snake on one and hid with the egg, before she thought back to when it happened leading up to the current moment.

 _It started a few months after she had lain her first small clutch of three eggs. She was excited to see what their birth forms would be. Her species, known as The Mutata (short for mutata increaturis), had a special trait. When one was born they'd have an original 'form' that was different for each, but they would change to similarly match their clutch parents within one week. This ability to change would stay with them for the rest of their lives, allowing them to change into whatever form they so choose. There was only one limit though, how they would come to 'know' the new forms. There were believed to be limitless ways, but some were more common-like her being only able to change into anything she touched and focused on._

 _A quiet_ _ **crack**_ _brought her out of her wandering thoughts and she hurried to be near her precious babies as they worked their ways out of the thin but tough shell. She watched with a beaming smile as her young slowly worked their way out. Soon, all but one had come fully out of their shell. With a happy smile she looked to the last one, but her smile was soon gone when she realized why the last one wasn't out of it's shell. It hadn't even hatched. It was a dud! She wailed at the loss of one of her eggs before picking it up to take it where unborn eggs were to go, but before she could even stand up straight a hand reached out and took her egg._

" _Do not despair. It is just not this little one's time. He will be born when the time is close," a gentle voice spoke. She looked to the side at a mysterious figure. It was dressed in all black, but it seemed to be a human female in form. The figure seemed to be wearing tight, knee-high black boots, and a torn black dress that was long in the back but shortened to knee-length in the front was what she mainly wore with a belt-like corset keeping it cinched at her waist. To top it all off, the female figure had a long, hooded black coat that hugged her bodice until it reached her hips before billowing out around her legs. The female couldn't see the figure's face as the hood hung over her head leaving no sign of features, just darkness. That was when the creature's gaze was drawn to what was in the figure's other hand: a beautifully created, rune-carved scythe._

" _Who are you?" The female asked the mysterious figure in her species language._

" _That does not matter. You will see me soon again after this, but for now, let me ask. What's your name?"_

" _Junn. Why did you take my egg from me? I am required to take it to the-"_

" _NO! Do not even think of that! This egg may not have hatched with the others, but did you not hear me earlier? I said it's not its time to be born yet. It is_ so, so _special. If you were to get rid of it, the results could be disastrous."_

 _Junn stared, before asking, "What do you mean? If it hasn't hatched yet, then it never will."_

" _No, it will hatch when the time is right. The one in that egg has a great purpose. In time it will hatch to learn just a few things before it meets the one it will form a Socius bond with. I am so sorry for what will come soon, but there is nothing I can do. Just know, when the end comes you and your babies will be happy. I won't allow for anything else… Protect the egg with all you can. It is destined to be loved."_

" _How?" Junn asked when she finally decided to believe the figure._

" _I cannot tell you," the figure stopped and seemed hesitant to continue, "But I will bestow a gift upon you and the egg to help you in your coming struggle."_

 _With that the figure waved the scythe over the egg and then Junn chanting, "Factus est omnis lingua loquentium. Factus est omnis lingua loquentium. Factus est omnis lingua loquentium… It is done."_

 _Junn felt a wave of warmth as the spell washed over her. Before she could say anything though, the figure vanished, leaving behind the predestined egg. Junn picked it up and cradled it against her chest, feeling a strong_ _ **thump, thump**_ _coming from it._

 _Days passed and the egg was still unhatched. Junn was feeding her other babies before she jumped when an awful screech rang throughout her home warren. She hurried to look down the tunnel and saw strange gray humanoid figures shooting purple beams at her fellow Mutata as they tried to flee or hide. Fearful for her babies' lives, she grabbed them along with the egg and quickly hurried down the tunnel opposite the approaching menace. Several purple beams hit the walls of the tunnels around her as she fled, but none of them struck their mark._

 _After rounding several corners and turns in the large network of tunnels, Junn stopped realizing she couldn't keep going while carrying two hatched babies and an egg. She panicked when, out of nowhere, something grabbed her and pulled her into a dark alcove. Whatever grabbed her though told her to calm down. As Junn's eyes adjusted, she looked about and realized that she was grabbed by some of her fellow Mutata. There were several young ones that some of the elders had gathered to hide._

 _Knowing the alien beings would soon come this way to find her, Junn decided she would have to leave, but she turned to one of the older females in the group and asked, "Please, I must leave. Can you watch over my babies? If they stay with me they will be endangered." She only waited long enough for the female to nod and take the two babies before turning and leaving quickly._

 _She was only a few steps away when several purple beams shot into the walls around her and one hit her wrist, causing it to stop working. Stumbling at the momentary pain, Junn started to run. She was too far away to hear and realize that the things had found the hiding group when one of her babies cried out in hunger. In a way she was spared the horrific killing and screeches that came as they were mercilessly murdered._

 _She ran until she found the opening that led aboveground. Hurrying out she ran across the unfamiliar terrain as beams flew over her head and she ran to keep her egg safe. She found the alcove and focused on the snake she touched…_

Now here she was hiding. She could hear the fastly approaching creatures footsteps, until they were right there looking in the alcove. She held her breath in the snake form, but the things continued on after seeing nothing suspicious. At least, they were going when two of them stopped and started communicating. To her surprise, Junn could clearly understand what they were saying.

"Stay here and watch for that stupid thing in case it somehow managed to hide from us. We are supposed to destroy the entire species. I heard it was Thanos that ordered it since the one he wants to marry was here a few days ago. Since we've killed all of the others and collapsed the tunnels, it's the only one left," the one on the left ordered the other.

"Of course."

The left-hand one, taking that as affirmation, turned and followed the rest of its group. The other turned back around and walked into the alcove. She had to quickly slither out of the way since the ugly thing went to sit on the rock she was pretending to sleep on. That's when she got an idea. She quickly slithered behind the other creature and touched it with her tail. Focusing, she quickly found herself crouching behind it, looking exactly the same as the figure in front of her. Not making a sound, she picked up a rock and bashed the thing's head.

It was stunned and fell onto the ground, but it started to move again. Remembering that they had said all her kind were dead she went into a rage and started beating the things head harder and harder with the rock. She stopped when she pulled her arm back too hard and caused the rock to go flying backwards. Her hands were shaking as she looked down at her work. The things head was a mess of blood, snot, bones, teeth, and brain clumps. Shuddering at the horrifying gore, Junn turned her head and dry-heaved, but she continued with her plan. She influenced the dead body to look like her, picked up the egg, put it in the creatures bag, and started dragging it to where she saw the other things went.

"Stop!" a voice called out, causing Junn to do exactly that. "What are you doing away from that alcove? I told you to watch for the stupid…" the previously known as 'left creature' creature drifted off when it saw what Junn was dragging, "You killed the stupid beast?"

Offended, Junn gave a nod, before starting to drag the body forward. She was stopped when left creature scoffed, "Don't bring that filthy thing closer. Dump it in that river over there and then come find us so we can get back to the ship and continue on our course to our target."

Turning back to go to the river she knew they were talking about. Hefting the body, she dumped it into the water. She watched as it changed back to its original form since it was no longer influenced by her touch. As it drifted down the water, she never saw the same figure from before-with the scythe strapped to its back-watching her, holding two babies.

She ran to find the aliens, but it was only a few moments before she caught up to them only a few yards away from where they last were. They didn't spare her a glance as they headed towards and boarded what she figured was their ship. She looked about at the curious environment onboard the ship. A lot of it looked similar in color to the creatures' armor. She listened in on some of the conversation as she wandered through the large ship. Very informative. So, the things were called Chitauri, they were planning an invasion of planet Earth (although she heard it phrased differently a couple times), they were ordered by something called The Other to obey some Loki person, and the evil titan Thanos was mentioned in some conversation as well.

To Junn's relief she found what was apparently the residency areas where the Chitauri slept and possibly could do other things. She looked through the many rooms and areas to find a well-hidden place for her to stay. Coincidentally, at the very end of all the rooms (or whatever she was supposed to refer to them as), she found a room that was secluded and the nearest living space was several yards away. Strange.

She gently set her bag down and pulled the egg out. She began to cry, knowing that she would be the last of her kind until the egg hatched. Her babies were dead, and now she had to leave her home and was likely never to return. She had hope that there would somehow be a continuation of her species somewhere else once this egg found the one it would form a Gloria bond with, and that was all she needed. A little hope touching her heart with a feathery brush.

Half a day passed and she could feel that something big was going to happen, but wasn't sure what, only that it would be good. The ship had stopped for a while now and the Chitauri seemed to be waiting for some sort of signal, but that wasn't why she could feel the sense of something wonderful coming. No, it seemed to just be her that sensed it.

It was a few hours later when she found out what it was. She had been sitting on her makeshift bed meditating. All was quiet and she felt a peaceful calm envelope her. Her eyes snapped open in surprise when she heard something coming from the alcove she had hidden her egg in. It was almost like a rustling movement. She was about to dismiss it as nothing when **Crack!** Knowing it could only be one thing, she hurried over to the alcove and grabbed the egg before setting it on her bed.

Avidly watching, she thought on what she was going to name it. She had come up with three names for each of her eggs when they were fresh-lain and she knew what she would name the young one coming out. Her Gloria would've been happy for his late-born baby to be named it if he hadn't died when he was eaten by a Bilgesnipe that had been illegally brought to her planet.

A sneeze and a flash of flame snapped her out of her thoughts as she admired the form her baby had taken. There was a human name for what form he'd taken, but she couldn't fully remember it at the moment. He had beautiful bright blue and onyx black scales covering his body somewhat covering his wings. That's when the name hit her. Dragon, that's it. Her baby had taken the form of a beautiful dragon. Although a small one at that. His name would be perfect.

Picking him up she smiled down as he nuzzled into her chest, "Hello, little one. I've been waiting for you. Now, I must give you your name," the dragon was looking up at her with all its attention focused on what she was going to say. "Dragons are considered fierce in many ways, but are also gentle. They are said to be like storms: violent like the lightning and thunder or life-giving and soothing like the rain. That's why you, my mighty dragon, you will have a name that takes that all into consideration," she paused and smiled at her baby in such a loving, happy way, "Your name, my fierce, loyal dragon, shall be Arashi."

 **Thank you so much for reading! If you liked it please follow, review, or favorite this story. Again, big thanks to Brazilwolf for the awesome OC I hope I did it justice. Anyways, have a fantastic day and I will be back with another chapter sometime. Oh, and happy belated Fourth of July!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hooray! Ne chapter! I had fun writing this one too! It has another OC in it that I received from someone on another fanfiction site. Can I just say how surprised I am by how many people have viewed, faved, reviewed, or followed this story? I mean, wow!**

 **Anyways, I don't own Avengers or anything mentioned/referenced.**

 **Read on!**

* * *

 _Adrian's Clearing-Central Park, New York City_

Finally stumbling tiredly into the clearing, Adrian looked down at a just waking Bilbo. "Why am I not surprised you managed to sleep through all that and stay asleep for over half a day while I tried to find this clearing again?"

"Well, I was originally a cat after all, so it shouldn't be a surprise," Bilbo responded, stretching before morphing into a man.

"Huh. You know, we should probably come up with a better name for some of your other forms when you take them. I think we'd get funny looks if Bilbo was your name when you're human. How about… Mark Russo?"

"Really?"

"What?" Adrian asked.

"I know where you came up with that."

"Your point being? I happen to like the name."

"It's just that… I'm curious why you decided to name me off of your favorite Youtuber and the family in WOWP."

"Bilbo, either say the full name or nothing else. WOWP sounds utterly ridiculous."

"Psh! Fine. Wizards of Waverly Place. Happy?"

"Yes."

Bilbo glared at Adrian before rolling his eyes, "Anyways, what'd I miss?" He looked over Adrian in his disheveled state, "I missed some excitement didn't I?"

"If you consider accidentally teleporting to a forest that has Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America fighting before invisibly hitching a ride on their quinjet to the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier and then driving the same quinjet back here to New York: all followed by spending several hours searching for this clearing and experimenting with old and new powers exciting, then I guess."

"Huh. Did you discover anything while experimenting with your 'powers'? I believe you said 'new.'"

"Well… Ok. Yes, I discovered something that I hadn't noticed before."

"And?"

"I can feel things."

This caused Bilbo to giggle in surprise, "Feel things?"

"That does sound strange, but I meant that I can feel everything: the particles in the air, all the molecules of water, elements, the molecules making up people, (bizarrely) the pulses making up people's thoughts, and so much more. It's like someone attached my nervous system to everything that exists. I even found that I could manipulate stuff, accidentally."

"And how does one 'accidentally' find that they can manipulate matter?"

"I may or may not have caused a bank window to melt when I walked by. I was frustrated that I had to find this clearing still. Afterwards, on my way back here, I worked on controlling it. With help from the memories of some soul pieces, I have gotten it down to where I can control or manipulate things in condensed form easily and draw particles of stuff in the air together with some difficulty."

"I'm confused. What do you mean?" Bilbo asked, tilting his head.

"Here, I'll do it while I explain," Adrian said before he gestured at the ground and a clump of earth shot into his hand, "This, is several millions of molecules condensed into what is commonly called dirt by us. I can easily control it and make it move or change shape," Adrian said and Bilbo watched as the clump of dirt floated and flew in a circle before forming a dolphin followed by an owl.

"As well as controlling it, there is the fact that I can shift or remove molecules to fully change its molecular structure into things such as glass, sand, or paper," the dirt turned into glass then sand, and then into paper, before turning back to dirt. "Now, I also said I can draw particles or molecules from the air. These are dispersed and I can form them into any condensed form such as water, earth, or radioactive material. I also found that I can cancel out and manipulate waves, like sound, light, or even electrical ones in the brain that create thought." Bilbo watched surprised as a ball of water appeared out of nowhere before turning into dirt than a glowing substance. He became more surprised when the sounds of birds chirping disappeared and then the clearing went pitch black. His mind felt sluggish as well.

"Can I just ask something?" Bilbo said.

Adrian stopped and dissipated the gathered molecules and particles, before returning light and sound. He then sent the dirt back to where it came from, "Yeah. Sure"

"How are you already so good with it? You only discovered it _today."_

"Ah. I see where there could be confusion. Okay, so you know I have all the soul pieces' memories and all that right?" Adrian paused until he saw Bilbo nod, "There's your answer. I have access to several memories of how to control and use my powers, but it's like I'm rusty with them at the moment. Plus, I practiced for over 10 hours as I searched for this place. The memories make things more simple, but strangely, I only recall them after I find out I have the powers."

Bilbo nodded again, "Makes sense."

"Oh, guess what I got!" Adrian said excitedly, changing the subject. Before Bilbo could say anything, Adrian pulled something out of his pocket, "An iPhone. It's supposedly the leading phone in the country at the moment… I got one from some place that had a special 1 year anniversary prize giveaway if someone could guess the number of phones in a giant box within 5 phones. 365, there was 365 phones in that box. I didn't even know. I just guessed it because I was thinking about days in a year. Anyways, the prize was a choice of any of their top products, so I just asked for a phone since I'm guessing we'll need one at some point."

"For what?"

Adrian smiled, "Let's just say it'll be a good attention grabber."

"Do I want to know? Know what? Don't answer that."

"Ok."

Adrian put away the phone before he turned and assessed the clearing. He muttered something to himself before turning to Bilbo and saying, "You know. I could use a little more practice with all of my newly discovered 'powers'. Do you think I should give this clearing some 'homey' comforts? I may need some assistance with the arrangement of the things I try to create."

"Oooh! Can you make a soft cat bed for me to sleep in? I don't care what you decide to make otherwise," Bilbo said with excitement and he began to purr at the thought of a soft warm bed.

"Sure. I can try," Adrian said before he turned and focused. First the places to sleep: Adrian reached out with his mind for condensed and dispersed molecules to form wood, fabrics, stuffing, and fastenings. He closed his eyes as he pictured the wood weaving and fastening together, then the fabrics stitching together and filling with stuffing, and finishing with the pieces coming together to form a finished product. He opened his eyes to see two cat beds.

Next, Adrian decided there should be some places to comfortably sit and/or eat. He pulled together the needed molecules and again focused on the materials coming together. He opened his eyes to see some cushioned chairs arranged in a semicircle and a table with chairs around it. With a bit more focus and time, Adrian formed a fire-pit and had some wild-vegetable soup going. The vegetables came from a patch of wild vegetables Adrian found nearby that he had used his abilities on to advance their growth.

Bilbo assessed the arrangement, impressed, before he asked puzzled, "Why two cat beds?"

Adrian gave a fond eye-roll, "You aren't the only one that can have a cat form."

"Really? What does yours look mainly like?"

"You want me to show you?" Adrian asked, not wanting to describe it in words.

"Sure."

Adrian moved to a more clear area before he pictured what he wanted to turn into. Quickly, a fiery orange, male cat took his place and meowed before actually speaking, "What do you think?"

"I think you should stay away from any females looking for a strong tom to mate with. You're cat form is desirable in the gene pool of cats. I like the orange though, makes me think of the cat soul piece of mine I met. He told me he was friends with what he called 'firestar,' or something like that. Here, I'll morph to look like him to show you what I'm talking about." Bilbo stood and, like Adrian, a grey cat soon took his place.

As soon as Adrian saw him, memories came rushing to his mind. Helping a black cat escape a... tiger? Something like that. Fighting to rid a 'clan' of an evil cat plotting to kill some blue star. Taking up leadership and seeing the stars... So much new input on a past he had in one universe. Adrian spoke a few moments after the memories faded away, "I remember him from one of my pasts! Interesting… Wait. What time is it?"

"I think it's far past midnight. Wasn't it becoming morning when you left the helicarrier?"

"Yeah. Like I said: I spent most of the day practicing my abilities while looking for this clearing and then there's the time I just used up to make all our stuff and show you the 'newly discovered' powers. Anyways, we should probably go to sleep."

Bilbo nodded, before giving a yawn that showed off his sharp teeth. Together they headed to the separate beds and curled up to sleep. Adrian soon found a flaw in their plan. He was wide awake and felt not even a sliver of tiredness. That's when he realized, "I haven't slept since I got to this universe! It's been a day and a half, and yet I'm not even close to tired. I still feel like I got a good night's sleep… Maybe It's an effect of my change? Eh. I'll find something to do until I'm tired I guess."

Adrian got out of the cat bed and morphed back to his original human form. He sat down and started to meditate. He stretched his awareness out to feel the plants and molecules around him. It was calming in ways. It suddenly occurred to Adrian that he would need to find ways to makes money until he could find some steady job. Still thinking, Adrian started doing something he had picked up habitually after visiting a friend who was renting a room to an artisan: blowing glass. Only difference was that Adrian made the glass form from dispersed molecules and was heating it while he molded it with his hands. The heat didn't burn his hands since he was controlling it, so he easily molded the melted glass in his hand into an abstract statue that looked like a flame forming from a spiral. Adding a glass base, Adrian cooled it with a thought and looked at it.

The statue was better than any glass figure Adrian had done when he first started glassblowing in 10th grade. Heck, people might actually pay for it. That's when the lightbulb came on in Adrian's head. He could make glass blown figures and other things to sell until he got a better job. Adrian went through the whole night making glass figures, creating some jewelry, weaving some baskets, and making some other knick knacks

The next morning, after Bilbo had woken up to Adrian packing up several things that he couldn't quite see, Adrian headed with 'Mark' to a place in New York where he could sell his hand-crafted items. It was surprisingly near to Stark Tower and Adrian had several people stop and look at the items he was selling. It was nearing noon when he found himself running low on things to sell. He packed up his remaining wares speaking with 'Mark', both were surprised at how fast people had bought his items when several of the people around him hadn't sold hardly anything. Heck, he even had some very business-like people stop to get a glass figure or some jewelry. One redhead woman with her hair in a tight bun had stood out to him though when she showed early in the morning, but he couldn't remember why she seemed familiar. All she had asked for was a pair of earrings and a figurine she said she'd give to her 'boss' as a present for her leaving.

He was going through the money he had gotten with Mark, when a woman walked up to him from where she was packing up her wares. She hadn't sold a single thing and was thinking of finding a different spot when she had spotted Adrian packing up with only a few things leftover from the haul she had seen him bring in with a brunette early that morning. Interested in him since she had never seen him in the area before, she walked up and distracted the two of them from counting their profit by saying, "Nice to see someone is making a profit. Several people were starting to think this area was cursed with bad sales."

Adrian looked up, "Oh really? And why is that? All these people's wares seem so much better than mine."

Assessing him for any cocky sarcasm, the woman was glad to see none and smiled, "I wouldn't say that. You have some beautiful items. Heck, I even bought some earrings from your 'inventory' to match my scarf." She brushed a lock of lavender hair over her ear and showed Adrian and his friend the earrings she got. Indeed they were a light green matching her light green scarf with lace details.

"Oh. You must have bought them when I went to grab breakfast for us. Otherwise, I would've recalled someone as interesting as you," Adrian said thoughtfully. He looked over the woman whose name he had yet to find out and noted the scar running down her right eye and interrupting a patch of freckles.

"Well, one as interesting as me would be sure to catch one's eyes. It is unfortunate I didn't get the honor of introducing myself to you before," she said with a dramatic sigh, causing Adrian to chuckle.

"Yes, unfortunate indeed. I haven't quite met many of the fantastic people in this city. Most of the people I've met seem happy with an angry mumble about how annoying people should stay out of a decent person's business. I'm Adrian Leeson and this is my best friend Mark Russo. May I ask as to who you are? Miss-"

The woman giggled, causing her caramel brown eyes with blue and green flakes to shine with laughter, before she responded, "Spirits. Odette Spirits. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all ours Miss Spirits," Mark said. Adrian looked to the side at him and noticed that his eyes were fixated with curiosity on Odette.

Adrian looked back to Odette when she said, "Please. Miss Spirits makes me think my old teacher is calling for my attention. Call me Odette."

"Alright. Can I ask why you came over here?" Adrian responded.

"Oh. Right. Well, I have never seen you around before, so I was going to inquire as to where you sold your stuff before."

"We haven't. Sold any stuff before, that is. This is our first time."

"Interesting. You did very well. Better than my fai-lure today," Adrian found his curiosity piqued when she stumbled over what she was saying and shivered slightly at the words.

"Do you want to try selling them over here next time? This seems to be a spot where a lot of people stop and I'm sure plenty of people would love your clothing and boots. Specifically, the female population. Heh. Maybe sometime we could mix wares so I sell some of your stuff with mine and you sell some of mine with your stuff," Adrian said, sensing what seemed to be her worry at not succeeding.

"You think so? I think I might take you up on that offer," Odette winked at them, "I guess my style of spring colored dresses with brown ankle boots could be combined with a lot of your beautiful glass jewelry…" She seemed to contemplate the idea before nodding, causing her bob cut hair to shake before settling.

Adrian was about to ask her why she dyed her hair, when he was stopped by an explosion coming from above the Stark Tower. His eyes widened in realization. Quickly he spoke, "Odette, listen to me very carefully," he waited for a receptive nod before continuing, "We need to head underground and try to make our way off the island until it's safe. Don't question what I tell you. If you find me afterwards, I will tell you why. Okay? Go! I'll be right behind you."

Odette looked at Adrian puzzled before she made the decision to heed what he told her to do and grabbed her stuff before going down the nearest subway entrance. She boarded a train and was almost halfway to the mainland when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She looked down at the message she got from her friend ' _Aliens are attacking New York City! Are you okay?!'_ Now what made Adrian send her away mere moments before an alien invasion would start in New York? She'd definitely need to talk to him… Wait. He didn't come with her!

 _Several minutes earlier near Stark Tower_

"Do you think she'll be alright?" 'Mark' asked, concerned.

"She should be. I think a train left a few minutes after she went down that entrance so she should be almost halfway to the mainland when the portal opens and the Chitauri attack. First though, we should figure out what we're going to do. I plan to help fight and protect the people who may become injured or die if I don't do anything." Adrian looked up and saw a red and gold blur following a darker blur before the red and gold covered the dark and came to a short stop before shooting back up to the top of Stark Tower. After a few seconds Adrian said, "Prepare for portal in three… two… one…"

A loud boom rang out as soon as a blue light shot up to the sky and opened up a portal to somewhere in space. Adrian started herding people as he saw the Chitauri come racing in.

 _Somewhere in space a few minutes before portal opening_

Junn nervously shifted with a strange weapon in her hands and her baby, Arashi hidden in a bag on her left hip. She didn't like these things they were on. They were some sort of flying transport that had a Chitauri foot-soldier driving and two other foot-soldiers on the back to shoot anything. Unfortunately, Junn was one of the back ones. ' _I don't even know how to fire these things, but I better figure it out fast so I can escape as soon as we get to this "Earth,"'_ ran through her mind as she investigated the foreign weapon in her hands. She just had to wait for her chance.

She wasn't waiting for long before the Chitauri got excited and activated their vehicles and weapons. Junn looked around, and worried for the planet these things were invading as she spotted several leviathans. She would just have to do her best to help. She copied the Chitauri next to her in turning on her weapon and realized she just had to pull the trigger to shoot the purple beams that had killed her fellow Mutata.

She flinched slightly when a crack boomed from the spot all of the Chitauri were facing and a sprawling city was revealed through what she assumed was a portal. That's when she realized: she was on the front-lines.

The Chitauri vehicles sped forward and she was stunned when she got her first view of this foreign world. It was beautiful. There may be metal structures, but it had such beautiful life to it. She knew this would be the place where her baby would be so happy. The planet had so much potential, she realized, and became determined to prevent what happened to her species to happen to the dominant species here.

She looked at the other two Chitauri soldiers, before subtly taking off what was keeping her attached to the craft. With a quick aim and two shots she took out the Chitauri she was with. As the craft went flying down, she jumped off at the last moment and rolled while cradling her baby to keep him safe. She was lucky, since she saw all the other crafts get blown up by something in gold and red. More came rushing through the portal and she prepared to fight. She looked about quickly and realized she had crashed right into a group of some humans, but when she stood up they warily looked at her before rushing down into tunnels of some sort. Only two of them stayed behind and looked at her with a fierceness that surprised her.

Now what was she supposed to do?

* * *

 **Yaas! It's another one finished! Please fave, follow or review in whatever ways you people feel so long as it's not stupid hate comments since those are a waste of time (if you didn't like it in the first place. Why would you read this far?) Anyways, I'm still accepting OCs and you can send in your name for a character you can define. Please make sure they're flexible so I can put them in different stories and don't have to deal with a story cluttered with OCs. Also, please tell me what you guys all think of Bilbo's human name? I am a fan of Markiplier...**

 **Thanks for reading and rock on my fellow gals and guys!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Finally! I'm sorry for not updating in so long, but I had no internet for the past few months, so wasn't really able to work on the chapter. I've been working on this fanfic a lot the last few days, but what with the long typing and not checking all the time, there may be several errors or parts that don't quite make sense. Feel free to point out those errors (in a decent way) or ask for clarification/ tell me if something is confusing. I'm not sure how good this is considering it's the first battle scene I've written. The rest of this fic that will contain the events of the Avengers movie will end in the next chapter FYI. Then I'll move into the following events with some developmental fluff and eventually romance. Still, I'm sorry for not updating in so long, sorry this AN is so long, and I'm still taking OCs to be in this fic or one of the other ones I have planned. Also, don't be too harsh, okay? I don't do this to purposefully get cruel feedback... Thanks for reading this note if you do!**

 **Read on!**

* * *

Adrian yelled at the Chitauri soldier staring at him and 'Mark' and they went to attack it, yet Adrian froze when a female voice cried out, "NO! Please don't hurt me! I only just escaped them with my baby!"

Puzzled when Adrian froze, 'Mark' turned around to look at him. All he had heard was something garbled loudly from the Chitauri in front of them. Adrian wasn't looking at him though. No, he was looking at the Chitauri soldier. To Bilbo's surprise Adrian garbled something back.

"What do you mean? Why would you escape your own species, especially with a baby?"

"I'm not Chitauri. I only look like one because I had to hide amongst them after they killed my species. My baby is the only other one of my kind and I had to take him with me. Please, I come in peace and I wish to help defend this beautiful planet."

"What are you and how do you look like the Chitauri?" Adrian interrogated after absorbing the new information.

"I come from the planet Mutationem where I was an individual of the Mutata. We are able to change form into any living creature, but are limited in certain ways that vary by each Mutata. I change into any creature I touch and focus on. My baby can't change form just yet since he was born yesterday."

"Can you show me?"

"Yes... but I need to touch something living," Junn responded.

Thinking for just a moment, Adrian nodded before he morphed into a woman and offered the alien his hand. Shocked, the Mutata reached out and focused on the offered hand. Soon two of the same woman stood next to each other, before Adrian morphed back.

Assessing the now changed alien, Adrian spoke again, this time in English, "Interesting. What's your name?"

"Junn," she answered in the tongue without even realizing it.

"Nice to meet you Junn. We'll trust you for now. I'm Adrian and this is-"

He was cut off when 'Mark' staggeredly interrupted, "All this weirdness is fine and dandy, but you do realize there's a battle going on around you?" His point was proven when an explosion happened a few feet away.

"Good point. Junn? Ready to kick some Chitauri behind?"

In response, Junn hefted her Chitauri gun, adjusted her bag and simply said, "Yes."

Good timing since as soon as she finished shots flew over their heads. Adrian turned to face the threat and made the tar beneath the approaching Chitauri melt before making glass bullets shoot through their heads. He paused and focused. When he felt a tingle rush down his spine he opened his eyes to see only Junn looking about frantically, her bag was gone. He calmed her by saying, "Don't worry. We're still with you and your baby is still with you I just made us all invisible since I don't want to be seen before I want to be seen, but… um... apparently I can't make you invisible at the moment. I'll make us visible for now, but don't worry if it happens again. Hang on."

Junn nodded once they faded into her view and they all made their way out through the city fighting any of the Chitauri forces. They avoided the Avengers fighting, but Adrian made everyone invisible except Junn when he saw Iron Man pass over several times. They continued back towards Stark Tower unworried since most of the time it looked like Junn was walking by herself. They only worried when some Chitauri started coming their way as Stark came passing over them again. Quickly thinking, Adrian made gasoline materialize on the street so that a blast hitting them from above would make them 'explode', and Junn had nothing to do with it.

Tony had turned to look at the lone Junn and Adrian whispered for her to pretend to head for a building. He was happy when he saw the robotically suited man nod before taking off. Junn came racing back and, after continuing the fighting for a few blocks, startled Adrian when she shot over his shoulder. Looking back Adrian saw more Chitauri and, getting tired of them quickly, he simply waved a hand and they were encased in a six-inch layer of glass drawn from nearby buildings.

They were getting closer to Stark Tower and Adrian shouted to 'Mark' to be heard over some of the explosions, "You know, I bet they'll have a pleasant surprise in my artistic masterpiece!"

Grinning when 'Mark' gave him an exasperated sigh, Adrian turned and redirected falling pieces of a building to harmlessly land on several dozen Chitauri instead of a bus of people. Adrian reached out and felt for any civilians who could be in danger. At the moment none were, except for those in the bus, but Adrian left them to be rescued by Hawkeye and the others since that was indeed what was happening. Adrian watched Junn as he took a breather (some of the material conjuring drained his energy quite immensely). She was shooting several Chitauri down with her gun, so she didn't notice Adrian taking a break. Nor did she notice the black-cloaked figure watching from nearby holding two bundles.

Adrian stood back up, his energy returned, and quickly eliminated the Chitauri Junn was having a bit of trouble fighting. He walked over to her and told her to just stop and rest for a few seconds She was breathing far too heavily in Adrian's opinion and her arms were shaking.

* * *

Loki looked down on the battle as he drove a Chitauri craft, gritting his teeth. What was happening? How could these pathetic mortals not be overrun by his forces already? There were too many for even him to count. Plus there was the leviathan he had ordered into the fight, but if 'the Avengers' weren't overly distracted by his forces they may be able to succeed. If the beast showed up, there'd be a serious problem. He watched as the battle raged around him.

* * *

" _Well we got it's attention,"_ Tony said to himself, his voice being picked up by the suit, " _What the hell was step two?"_ He had just shot several rockets at the leviathan that was currently now going after him. He started leading it away from the buildings. Or at least he tried to.

* * *

Hawkeye and Blackwidow were fighting several Chitauri soldiers. Natasha with one of the Chitauri weapons and Clint with his bow and arrows. Two charging Chitauri were about to smash them when Captain America bashed into them with his shield and pitched in with the fight. It was only a few moments later that the Chitauri around the three were hit with bolts of lightning and Thor landed clumsily, momentarily having trouble with his injured side, before straightening with the help of a car.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked him.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable."

" _Thor's right. We got to deal with these guys,"_ Stark said over their com-links.

Natasha spoke up, "How do we do this?"

"As a team," Steve answered.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor thundered.

"Yeah?" Agent Barton said snidely, "Get in line."

"Save it," Steve ordered, "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top. He'll need us to…"

He drifted off when they all heard a motorcycle approaching. Looking, they found Banner pulling up on a motorcycle. He got off and approached the rest of the Avengers as they walked to him, "So, this all seems horrible."

Natasha spoke, "I've seen worse."

"Sorry."

"No, we could use a little worse."

Steve spoke into the com-link, "Stark, we got him."

" _Banner?"_

"Just like you said."

" _Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."_

All of them watched as Stark came around the corner a few blocks down followed by the leviathan.

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha quipped.

As the thing started getting closer, Bruce turned to face it and Steve stepped forward, "Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry," was all Bruce said before turning and morphing into the Hulk just in time for his fist to smash the leviathan's face causing it to flip due to its body's continuing momentum.

" _Hang on,"_ Tony said and launched an explosive at the careening body as it fell towards the group and it exploded before going flying off the bridge they were on into the road below. Such was the anger that this caused in the Chitauri forces that those surrounding the group now in formation .

Flying somewhere above them, Loki ordered, "Send the rest."

This brought about more leviathans and Chitauri coming out of the portal.

Natasha, who was looking up and saw the new arrivals, shifted before warningly saying, "Guys."

" _Call it, Captain."_

"All right, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment," Steve said before he started giving out orders, "Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Steve paused for Barton to ask Stark, "Can you give me a lift?"

" _Right. Better clench up, Legolas."_

Once they had taken off Steve continued with his orders, "Thor, you got to try to bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

He paused to not have to yell over the whirling of mjolnir before turning to Black Widow, "You and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. And Hulk…" He paused and the Hulk turned to him with a snarl, "Smash."

* * *

Adrian barely managed to dodge before a green blur rushed past him and massacred the Chitauri forces they were facing. He smiled and thought, _The green rage monster has been released!_ His attention was taken off the raging Hulk by an amassing of lightning blasting with a crackle into the portal from the top of the Empire State Building. Good, two less leviathans.

* * *

"Sir."

Nick Fury looked up from the screens displaying the news coverage of the battle in New York at the approaching Agent Hill.

At his look, Hill told him, "The Council is on."

Fury turned back to the screens and closed the news feeds.

* * *

"Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail," Clint Barton spoke into the com-link as he shot a passing Chitauri craft.

" _I'm just trying to keep them off the streets,"_ Stark responded as he turned a corner.

"Well, they can't bank worth a damn," Clint responded before pressing a button on his bow and, without looking, shooting an explosive arrow that destroyed a passing craft. He said, "So find a tight corner."

" _I will roger that."_

Through several loops and sharp turns, Stark blasted through the city and took out the following Chitauri strays, " _Nice call. What else you got?"_

"Thor is taking on a squadron down on Sixth."

" _And he didn't invite me,"_ Tony said before joining Thor in his fight. While Thor was blasting several Chitauri with lightning from his mighty hammer, Tony fought with his repulsors. All was fine until there was a lull in the area they were fighting. That's when they saw it.

Tony had been taking a breather against a building near the street's end when he spotted what looked like a huge squadron of Chitauri at the edge of his vision. With a cry he turned the rest of the corner to blast a few with a repulsor beam, but stopped at the sight that met him. Thor, hearing Tony's war cry cutoff turned, ready to take out some Chitauri, but likewise froze at the surprising sight he saw once he rounded the same corner.

It wasn't the mass of Chitauri that surprised them, no, it was the six inches of glass encasing all of them. It was molded to their bodies so that they looked like big Chitauri statues. They looked at each other in a silent question.

"What thing could do this?" Thor muttered, barely being heard by Tony.

" _Well, it seems to be on our side at the moment… What should we do about these? I vote we leave them for now."_

"Yes. It may be best if we were to rejoin the battle instead of wasting away time on such menial tasks as eliminating these statuesque glass Chitauri. They can be dealt with at a later date." Thor swung his hammer and took off.

* * *

Natasha Romanov, Black Widow, Spy, Assassin, all things she was used to being referred to as, but she wasn't sure what she'd feel at being called 'Hero'. She didn't have time for such things at that moment though since she was just slammed onto a car's hood. She dodged the strike from the Chitauri in front of her before pushing it, causing it to turn around, and grabbing it in a choke-hold. The Chitauri soldier didn't struggle long before she shocked its neck with her Widow Bites. She grabbed the alien's weapon, a sort of high-tech spear with a bayonet-like blade and energy blaster, and shot it in its chest. On instinct she turned around ready to shoot, but paused when Captain America landed where she was aiming with his shield up.

Lowering her weapon, she leaned back against the same car she was slammed into as the Captain took a few steps forward, "Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal."

With both of them looking at the portal, Steve pointed out, "Our biggest guns couldn't touch it."

"Well, maybe it's not about guns."

Realizing what she meant Steve told her, "If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride."

"I got a ride," she said looking at incoming Chitauri hovercrafts, before walking away a few steps, "I could use a boost, though."

Steve backed up and lifted his shield a bit, "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah. It's gonna be fun," Natasha said before running at the crouching Captain. She jumped and aimed for his shield while at the same time he pushed up on her impact against it, causing her to get launched into the air. With a twirl she got hold of one of the crafts, leaving Steve behind to deal with a few Chitauri shooting at him.

* * *

Hanging off the end of one of the Chitauri crafts is something Natasha would never recommend. Still, she had to get to the driver. She took out the shooter in the back: a simple cut to the line holding them plus a kick equals Chitauri gone flying like a penguin dropped from six hundred feet. With a jump she dug some blades into the driver's shoulder blades.

"Okay, turn, turn," the craft veered severely, "Less! Less!"

* * *

Tony bashed through a bunch of Chitauri before momentarily landing by 'the Captain' and shooting several repulsor beams at surrounding Chitauri. He took off after reflecting a beam off of Capsicle's shield.

* * *

Adrian paused when he came up dry with new Chitauri. Looking over he spotted a small sapphire dragon somehow biting off a Chitauri' s… Ugh... Nope Adrian didn't want to think about it. He quickly turned to his right and saw Junn also catching a momentary break. She was watching something in awe though. Adrian stepped over a Chitauri corpse and looked to where her eyes were fixated. She first was watching Hawkeye take out a Chitauri ship, then Thor and the Hulk fighting atop a leviathan. As Thor hammered some of the thing's own shell into it, Adrian spoke up, causing Junn to jump, "Brilliant aren't they? And you haven't even seen all of them yet!"

"Indeed. I hope I can eventually settle down here. With protectors such as these, I believe I would no longer have to fear for my life at all times."

Adrian nodded and then smirked thinking about Thor getting launched by Hulk's fist in Grand Central Station. That would forever be funny. Turning to face Junn, Adrian noticed a Chitauri trying to sneak up on the two of them out of the corner of his eye. 'Mark' had been too busy with a different soldier to stop the other. Quickly, he tackled Junn to the ground-making sure the landing didn't damage her or the child- before shooting out a hand and causing the Chitauri armor to crush its wearer. When he helped Junn up, he surveyed the remains. It looked like a super-sized tin can.

* * *

Steve grunted as he struggled against the Chitauri trying to shishkabob his face with its spear. With a quick maneuver, the Captain managed to subdue the creature and got to his feet.

" _Captain,"_ Barton spoke through the com-link, " _the bank on 42nd past Madison. They've cornered a lot of civilians in there."_

"I'm on it."

Through some intense action and with some struggling, Steve managed to eliminate the Chitauri threat against the civilians while also getting blown out the window by a Chitauri explosive and landing on a car. Climbing off, he stopped to recover while the bank evacuation and some chaos ensued.

* * *

" _ **Director Fury, the council has made a decision,"**_ the only councilwoman said.

"I recognize the council has made a decision. But given that it' a stupid-ass decision. I have elected to ignore it," Fury snarked.

" _ **Director**_ ," the councilman taking up the largest computer window said, " _ **you're closer than any of our subs. You scramble that jet-**_ "

"That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman. Until I'm certain my team can't hold it. I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population."

" _ **If we don't hold them here, we lose everything**_ ," the same councilman spoke.

"If I send that bird out, we already have," was all Fury said before he shut off the call.

* * *

Silly aren't they? To think they can stand against the force of a god and his glorious army. It's too bad the archer was saved from his influence, otherwise he wouldn't be foolish enough to shoot his silly arrows at Loki. With a request for help from the quim, Barton shot an arrow and Loki simply caught it in his hand. With a mocking smirk, Loki didn't realize-until he was blasted onto Stark Tower-that the arrow was explosive.

While Natasha tumbled onto the top of Stark Tower, Loki stood up on the balcony. He wasn't alone for long. With a roar the Incredible Hulk jumped onto the balcony and charged Loki, launching him through a window into the building straight at a wall. Loki struggled to his feet and caught sight of the Hulk starting to charge again.

Before he could be hit, Loki fully stood and shouted, "Enough," when the Hulk stopped Loki continued, "You are, all of you, beneath me. I am a god, you dull creature and I will not be bullied by-"

He was cut off by the Hulk violently grabbing his legs and promptly smashing him into the floor a few times back and forth. There was a pause before the Hulk deemed Loki worthy of being smashed into the floor a couple more times. Walking away, leaving Loki to whimper in pain in a small Loki-shaped crater, the Hulk snorted, "Puny god."

* * *

Natasha approached the Tesseract, but was brought to a pause when she heard a voice from her right, "The scepter…"

Looking she saw Doctor Selvig lying on his side propping himself up with his left arm. As she observed a bleeding cut on his forehead she spoke, "Doctor."

"Loki's scepter. The energy. The Tesseract can't fight, but you can't protect against yourself."

Somewhat misunderstanding, the Black Widow knelt closer, "It's not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing."

"Actually, I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source."

"Loki's scepter," Natasha said, understanding.

"It may be able to close the portal," Selvig paused looking over the edge to the balcony below, "And I'm looking right at it."

* * *

"Watch out!" Adrian yelled to Junn who somersaulted to her left out of the path of several Chitauri blasts. Seeing 'Mark' and her relatively secure Adrian turned around to fight more Chitauri soldiers, but paused when he saw one of the Leviathans starting to blow up.

"Guys take cover in that building!" Adrian gestured to a nearby building and they quickly ducked into an open restaurant mere moments before they saw Iron Man crash through a little glass hut and smash into a Taxi cab. They watched as he tried to stand up, but got shot into a sign on the building next to the one they were sheltered in. Adrian stood up from crouching behind a table.

"So, what is this place?" Junn asked.

Adrian looked around and read a sign. He laughed, before shaking his head and saying, "How ironic. It's a Shawarma joint. Hmm… I wonder…"

Junn and 'Mark' watched as Adrian altered his appearance, grabbed a waitress, whispered to her, and gave her something in a corner, before glancing at one another questioningly. They shrugged at each other and turned back in time to see Adrian finish and come walking towards them.

Adrian paused at their questioning looks, "Just a little surprise for later."

"Does this coincide with your phone?" 'Mark' asked.

"Maybe, but let's go." They left, but were careful to give the momentarily immobile Iron Man and nearby Chitauri a wide berth.

* * *

" _Director Fury is no longer in command. Override order 7-Alpha-1-1,"_ came a voice over the comlink of a pilot in his plane.

"7-Alpha-1-1, confirmed. We're go for takeoff," the pilot responded and started preparing for takeoff.

"Sir, we have a rogue bird in motion!" Agent Hill alerted Fury before speaking into the ship's intercom, "Anyone on the deck, we have a rogue bird. We need to shut it down! Repeat, takeoff is not authorized."

Fury rushed to the deck and grabbed a rocket launcher on the way. As, he stepped out onto the open deck he aimed and shot, taking out the plane's wing and preventing its takeoff. A second plane took off and Fury futilely grabbed out his pistol, but the plane was too far gone to take out with a pistol, Thus, the director stepped back inside and immediately sent a message to Stark, "Stark, do you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city."

* * *

"How long _?"_ Stark asked pushing himself up only to be hit back down by one of the Chitauri.

" _ **Three minutes, max,**_ " was the response as Tony shot at several Chitauri from the ground, " _ **The payload will wipe out Midtown.**_ "

"Jarvis, put everything we got into the thrusters."

" _I just did."_ was all Jarvis replied before Stark took off, dislodging a Chitauri soldier.

Inside the plane the pilot pressed the red button on his control stick and launched his explosive cargo, " _Package is sent. Detonation in 2 minutes, 30 seconds, mark."_

* * *

Selvig opened his laptop as he instructed Natasha, who was now holding Loki's scepter, "Right at the crown!"

Natasha hesitantly approached the Tesseract's protective field and breached it with the scepter. With a brilliant blue glow the scepter was in, so Romanov spoke into the comlink, "I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

Down on the streets Steve responded, "Do it!"

" _No, wait,"_ Tony interrupted.

"Stark, those things are still coming."

" _I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute,"_ Stark responded getting in pursuit of the missile, " _And I know just where to put it."_

Tony finally caught up to the missile and grabbed hold of it.

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip," Steve said.

Somewhat ignoring that, Stark spoke to Jarvis, " _Save the rest for the turn, J."_

" _ **Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?**_ "

" _Might as well."_

* * *

Pepper Potts couldn't believe what she was seeing on the TV. She listened to the reporter's report, " _The Streets of New York City have become a battleground. The army is here trying to contain the violence but clearly, it is outmatched. And I have to say, in all my years of reporting, I have never seen anything like this. We have limited information on the team, but we do know that billionaire Tony Stark's Iron Man…"_

Miss Potts, like the majority of the crew of the Helicarrier, was too occupied by the news reports that she didn't hear or notice her phone vibrating with Tony's call.

* * *

 _There he goes,_ Adrian thought as a flash of red, gold, and white went by, _I know he's supposed to come out fine, but that doesn't help my anxiousness about possibly losing a platonic soulmate. Good luck Tony!_

* * *

Tony directed the missile and just barely bumped the top of his tower before flying up into the portal, causing everyone on the Helicarrier to cheer. Still Fury somberly continued to pay attention to the feed of what was happening.

Tony had never seen something quite so amazing, as Jarvis shut down and he released the missile, he watched it go flying into the ship and destroy it in a massive explosion that caused the Chitauri on Earth to shut down and die. He felt this would be his end, but still fought to remain conscious. As he fell back he paused to watch the explosion with a nebula backdrop before accepting the darkness of unconsciousness.

* * *

Everyone was watching the portal's opening.

"Come on, Stark," Natasha muttered.

 _He's going to be fine. He's not dead, he just went unconscious. That's what the small, weak twinge you felt was, Adrian. He'll be fine._

There was a moment of silence before they all heard the muffled explosion, then Steve gave the order.

"Close it."

Natasha struggled to finally close it off. The portal opening started closing, but Stark fell through just before it closed relieving Natasha.

"Son of a gun," was all Steve could say.

Thor, too, was relieved, but he realized, "He's not slowing down."

Before Thor could take off flying, the Hulk launched himself from a building and caught Iron Man in mid-air and crashed into a building to slow down. He then launched from the building and twisted so his back crashed into a car and then the street, cushioning Stark's fall. Once the Hulk came to a halt he tossed the metal man onto the street, where Thor and Steve came racing.

"Is he breathing?" Steve asked.

Thor easily ripped off Tony's faceplate and Steve bent down to see if he could hear or feel Tony breathing, but sat back when nothing came. The three, Thor, Hulk, and Steve, sat in silence for a moment before Hulk decided that Bruce couldn't lose his science bro and roared causing Tony to jerk awake with a gasp.

"What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Steve sat back and with a small head nod said, "We won."

Stark sighed, "All right, yay! Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."

"We're not finished yet," Thor said referring to Loki.

"And then Shawarma after."

* * *

Loki crawled to a sitting position before turning and coming face-to-face with the gathered Avengers. As Hawkeye aimed his bow, Loki looked towards Stark and said, "If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."

* * *

 **Okay. It is in. I have already started chapter eleven, but there may be a wait until either the weekend following this weekend or the week after that since I'll also be watching for 'error' comments or confused ones in order to make sure I fix any bad mistakes.**

 **Thanks to everyone who actually has read this far and followed or favorited (or both). You guys make this worthwhile and I'm glad some people actual find something good in my writing.**

 **Please comment, favorite, or follow- however you feel, just know that there's no need to create unnecessary negativity. Have enough of that in the world already.**

 **Rock on my fellow gals and guys!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Oh. My. God. I really must apologize for not updating this in so long, but life has been a hefty struggle as of late... Sorry? I don't know. Here's chapter 11. I had some serious writer's block that wouldn't have been as bad if it hadn't been for some more personal problems that I'm still struggling with and a decrease in my access to the internet. I'm sure the chapter will show that since I was kind of all over the place with how I wanted it to go, but I think it's more filler than anything else. Tell me how it is. I'll fix it or whatever if there are any problems. If not, all the better. Read on.**

* * *

"I think now's the time for that surprise," Adrian said as he, Junn, and Bilbo were slowly making their way through the cluttered streets on their way back to the little hideout in Central Park. Along the way, Adrian had tiredly made the clutter, broken things, and debris disappear or repair itself along as many roads as he could, but he stopped a while before he spoke since Bilbo had pointed out that his nose was starting to bleed. He pulled out a small container, but then paused, "I think I'll wait until we actually get back to Central Park. Wait, Junn. Where are you going?"

Junn didn't answer as she was too preoccupied with catching her baby who had somehow managed to climb out of her bag and start crawling away.

"Oh," Adrian chuckled, "Well, once you catch your baby, why don't we just stop at those glass Chitauri?"

"Why would we do that?" 'Mark' asked incredulously.

Adrian shrugged, "I don't know, I had this feeling I should go there all of a sudden."

"Well, I would like to analyze your work in more detail. Maybe we can see what happens if you smash one into pieces, pulverize it, and then burn it with a vengeance," Junn added cheerfully

Both Bilbo and Adrian stared at Junn oddly.

"What?"

* * *

"I had an idea, you know," Stark said tiredly from his spot around the table.

"Really?" Barton said, before taking a bite of shawarma, "Why do we need to know?"

"Well, Legolas, it includes you five, so I figured you'd want to hear it."

This got the group's attention somewhat and Steve glanced up from watching his plate and asked, "Are you going to explain?"

"Well, yes. See, Loki and his Glowstick of Destiny are not the only threat that's ever going to come about, correct? Therefore, since I don't think Shield is even close to being ready for some of the superhuman threats that could be out there, I thought it best if we continued our little band of avenging vigilantes. I haven't fully thought out any details, but I was thinking we set up in my tower once it's fixed and renovated since it's large enough to hold all of us. I mean, there's even a possible threat out there right now and Thor and I have seen its work!"

This gained everyone's full attention.

"You've 'seen its work'? What do you mean?" Bruce asked.

Thor spoke up before Tony, "While fighting we came upon a large group of Chitauri, but they were all encased in a thick layer of glass."

"Yeah, I estimate that it was around six-inches thick. They were basically made into giant glass statues."

Steve pondered this for a moment, "Maybe you should show us these  
'glass statues' once everyone has finished their food Then we can plan things further."

Everyone nodded in assent and continued to eat. Once everyone finished they stood up and Steve headed to the register, "May as well pay. They kind of deserve it for giving us food so soon after the battle."

After he paid the lady upfront, he was surprised when she handed him a phone, but wouldn't clarify what it was for when he asked. He decided there shouldn't be too much harm in keeping it for analysis later.

"Alright," Tony said once Steve got back, "they're this way."

The group followed him out of the shop and down the street.

* * *

"You know, they look pretty funny in some of their poses. Ha! This one had just tripped!" Adrian heard 'Mark' laugh as he walked through the small glass forest. He followed the laughter to find Bilbo indicating a Chitauri in a forward-flailing position while doubled over laughing. Feeling amused as well, Adrian looked through the glass figures with the adorable dragon-like baby in his arms to spy Junn smashing one of the figures with a sledgehammer and a snarl on her face.

' _Where'd she get a sledgehammer? Anyways, note to self: Never get on Junn's bad side.'_

Junn was quite happy, it may not show on her snarling face, but oho, she was happy. Seeing the Chitauri monster turning to bits under the swings of the large hammer she had pilfered from a construction site, satiated her lust to destroy the species slightly, but when she struck road she paused before turning to another and starting to smash it as well. She finished that one and then assessed the remains. Best to do something about them right? She called for Adrian to come over.

On hearing his name, Adrian weaved back through the figures, careful to not bump the baby against any of the glass, and paused when he found Junn panting with a small smile on her face.

"Did you need something Junn? I hope you managed to calm down enough so that we don't have need to worry about indirect harm to Arashi."

"Well, there's no need for that. I entrusted him to you knowing he'd be fine. Anyways, do you have any ideas for how I can burn these disgusting remains?"

Adrian stared at Junn for a moment, "That's simple, but I can't really hold Arashi if I'm going to do this."

"Alright hand the thing over to me," came a reply from nearby. Adrian turned to find Bilbo standing there with his arms out to receive the child. Adrian carefully placed the baby in his arms, making sure he was holding Arashi right. When he was satisfied with Bilbo's grip, he turned back and (with a warning to Junn to step back) he held his hands over the rubble, closed his eyes, and focused. After a couple seconds the large pile of rubble turned bright red and emitted an intense heat. While this caused Junn to start perspiring, Adrian seemed unaffected as the heat permeated the area. His eyes burst open with a dim red glow, he snapped his fingers, and the rubble fully melted in a burst of flames.

After a few moments Adrian's eyes lost the dim red glow and he assessed his work. Nothing but black ashes and a mound of molten glass. It was then that the excess heat the process had generated hit him, "Well, that was interesting."

"Was that all really necessary?" Bilbo asked.

"I didn't need to snap or focus for as long as I did, but I thought it'd be more fun to add a bit of flair… Kind of like a lot of superheroes do, but I hadn't thought of it that way before… "

"It did make it seem more intense and powerful," Junn added

"Yeah. I guess that's the point. Kind of like how some animals puff up to intimidate predators."

"Oh? …I see now."

"Wait," Adrian paused in his walking, "Are we really discussing this right now?"

"Well we were, but now we're discussing discussing it."

"How about not going further? Oh and you don't have to continue carrying my young one, - Actually I never caught your name."

"It's Bilbo, but in front of anyone who doesn't know my actual 'form' or my real name it's 'Mark'. Please keep that in mind when around others."

"Oh sure, but yeah. You can give me my maiori. I'm sure there's no danger incoming."

"Myo-what-i?" Bilbo asked with an eyebrow arched.

"She means her baby," Adrian told Bilbo as he stepped around one of the last Chitauri statues and sped up to a jog. Junn happily kicked its head, grimacing when the glass didn't yield to her foot, before holding out her arms. Bilbo carefully passed a sleeping Arashi to her and she settled him into the sling hanging on her hip. Arashi shifted and almost let out a cry before the sway of the sling from Junn's walking calmed him back to sleep.

Junn smiled down at him before asking somewhat loudly, "So where are we going again?"

* * *

"There they are," Tony spoke once the statues came into view.

"What? How did this happen?" Steve asked as he analyzed one of the statues.

"Of course I know what the cause of this was. It was your line of questioning," Tony snarked.

Steve ignored him as he stepped further into the glass forest. After a few moments he got to a spot of intense heat, "What on earth?"

"Crack a window! Why is it so warm?"

"It probably has something to do with what encased these Chitauri in glass," Natasha said.

"Search the area to see what you can find and we'll meet up to discuss in a few minutes," Steve lightly ordered the group before walking into the mass of glass.

It wasn't long before he noticed the Chitauri started to thin and he thought he heard a voice ahead say, "So where are we going again?"

"Junn," a british voice with an underlying purr chimed out, "Right now I think that's just ridiculous to ask. Adrian is clearly leading us back to a safer place, we fondly call it our 'hideout' currently… My apologies, that was actually rather rude."

Steve sped up and craned his neck to try to see around the statues, but the statues were against him and he stumbled over the raised surface of one of their feet. Easily catching himself on a nearby statue, he listened for those voices again, but didn't hear them. He debated chasing after them, recognizing the name 'Adrian', but decided it'd likely be more beneficial to have a group search instead. He noted the direction they went and walked back to where the others were analyzing the statues.

"Impressive. It seems the glass is in almost perfectly even layers," Steve heard Bruce say.

"True, but how did that happen and still leave the road between the Chitauri glassless?"

"Wouldn't you be the one to figure that out Stark? You are, after all, the 'genius' here," Steve spoke interrupting the short scientific dialogue.

"Why yes Capsicle, wouldn't want your intelligence ruining anything. Didn't your mother ever tell you it was rude to interrupt an important conversation?"

Ignoring Starks snide remarks Steve spoke, "I heard some people leaving the area and figured it was important since they mentioned a hideout and seemed suspicious."

"And you didn't follow them?" Natasha asked.

"They were headed towards Central Park and they were too far ahead of me to properly follow and I figured it'd be better to have a group searching than one person who didn't really see where they went when they got too far away."

"What are we standing here debating for? If they're our only suspects than we should go after them, shouldn't we?" Clint talked over his shoulder as he started going back the way Steve came. Rather than say anything else, everyone just followed suit and started to fan out on the way to Central Park.

* * *

"Here it is," Adrian said grandly as he swept aside some branches, "Our little hideout… Maybe we should give it a name? How about… Any ideas? I'm drawing a blank."

Bilbo perked up, "How about 'The Shire?' Or 'Fable's Haven?'"

"Hmm…"

"Fabulacomitatus?" Junn added.

"Fab-what-us?" Bilbo asked for clarification.

"The closest meaning is a combination of words in my first language that is a combination of those two: Fabula from 'fable,' comita from comitatus, a word closest to meaning 'shire', and tus from portus loosely meaning harbor or haven in this language I am somehow speaking and have knowledge of."

"Yeah. How is that exactly?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. The only thing I can think of is a mysterious stranger who visited me on my home planet before those Chitauri lanions killed my kind. She seemed to place a spell over me."

"Okay you two. I'm stopping this before it gets into a long discussion," Adrian said, "I think we can call it something else instead. I'm thinking a combination of our names, 'Jilbian', or simply 'home.'"

"Jilbian sounds good and we can always refer to it as home anyways," Junn shrugged.

"Yeah. It isn't copyrighted or complicated to say," Bilbo agreed.

"Now that that's settled, why don't I set up some space for you and your baby?"

"That would be nice, thank you."

"Okay, just need to make a bed… Would you mind turning into an animal to save space?"

"Oh! No, I just need one to touch."

"Alright, now some privacy stuff… A place to put any valuables or personal items… Some clothes… I'll have to find some way for her to learn more about earth and the cultures of it. I wonder if I can find some history textbooks and all that at the library… I'll put this here for the baby… There we go!" Adrian stood back and assessed his work. Junn stepped next to him, mouth slightly agape.

"That's very impressive!"

Bilbo glanced over from his area and didn't think much of it, all he could see was what looked like a thin white screen closing off a small darkened area. What he didn't see was a small chest with a small crib attached next to a medium-sized pet bed. There was also a little play area for Arashi with some bits and pieces of playthings.

"I figured Arashi would appreciate some things to do or burn if he's capable of spitting fire as a dragon."

"That's true, I hadn't really thought of that," Junn nodded, "Why is it dark though?"

"No specific reason other than I figured we'd all enjoy some rest after the battle and you would appreciate a darker sleeping place. I can easily make it lighter if you want."

"No, a good rest actually sounds rather nice. Will you watch Arashi while I am resting?"

"Sure, but I don't know why you're so trusting of me despite only meeting me today."

"I don't know. It's just a feeling… And besides you've given me plenty of reason to trust you enough to handle him already."

"Alright," Adrian assented, scooping up Arashi and going to step through an opening in the privacy screen.

"Wait!" Adrian stopped and glanced back at Junn's outcry, "Can you give me an animal for-" She broke off nodding towards the bed.

"Oh! Right. Hold on." Junn watched as Adrian set Arashi down and again changed form into a little dog and let Junn touch him. Changing back to normal Adrian scooped up the youngling and finally exited the area. Bilbo glanced at them before he assumed his cat form and curled into a ball on his bed.

"How would you like to go for a little walk?" Adrian inquired at the small dragon with a little smile, "Maybe I could show you the little garden I started yesterday. It grew surprisingly fast I assume, but best check up on it."

A small burble accompanied by a puff of smoke was all Adrian got for a response before Arashi snuggled further into his arms, "I'll take that as a yes."

Adrian walked away from the small clearing, humming a small tune. He was surprised when he felt a rumbling against his arm, like an amplified cat's purr. How adorable, the small baby was dozing! Adrian smiled down at the small form nuzzled against his arm, before he assessed the small garden he just arrived at.

He had divided it into three parts: aesthetic, flowering plants, herbal plants, and produce plants. The flowering ones he had found in the nearby area amazingly had buds already and the seeds he had managed to get from a grateful stranger who had been handing out packets of them for a promotion of the company he was working for were sprouting.

"Wow. That was fast. So the whole 'trees creating a roof' thing _was_ me. I wasn't sure whether or not I had imagined talking to that tree. I did collide pretty hard with those rocks after all. Interesting…"

Crouching down, Adrian held his hand out to one of the flowers that looked near-to-blooming and focused once it was nestled against his hand. Arashi shifted in his arms, wakened by the sudden movement, and hopped onto the ground nearby. Assessing the human, he lazily blinked when the flower bloomed and nearby flowers angled their buds towards the outstretched hand.

Pulling away his hand, Adrian finally looked beyond the freshly bloomed flower and arched an eyebrow at the sudden change in the nearby plants. Now that he confirmed he had some modicum of influence over plant life, the tree he had spoken to came to the forefront of his mind. The seeds! Adrian hastily dug in his pockets and sighed in relief once he felt a small bunch of seeds in the left pocket. For a moment there he thought he lost them…

"Maybe I should plant them here? I mean this is where the tree was originally from… No, the tree told me to plant them in my garden. I don't think this will be a permanent garden, so I'll wait until I find a more permanent home. Now though, I think I should make that call."

Adrian pulled out the small container, emptied it of its contents of apeculiar device connected to what looked like a walkie-talkie, and picked up Arashi again before he dialed something into the device, "I just hope they took the phone. I'll wait a few minutes before trying again later."

* * *

Steve was surprised when he felt a sudden vibration in his pocket. Grabbing the source from his pocket, he found it to be the phone. Someone anonymous was calling. He glanced around and saw that none of the others were nearby, except Stark, who was entering something from a paper into a tablet-like device.

"Stark," Tony glanced up at him from the device, "Are you able to track anonymous callers?"

Tony laughed, "Easily. Why?"

"I have suspicions about the caller who's calling me on this phone," he held it up for Tony to see.

"Where'd you get that low-tech garbage?"

"The woman working the register at the shawarma joint gave it to me when I paid, but wouldn't tell me why. Now I'm getting a call and I feel like finding the caller might be a step towards finding out the reason behind all this stuff."

"Fine. Hand the trash here. Once I get JARVIS onto tracking the caller you can answer it."

"Will it take long? If we take too long to answer the caller will stop."

"Well, give a couple seconds and JARVIS will be on the case, but you need to answer the call to distract them since it will take a minute or so to track their location."

"Fine," Steve placed the phone to his ear, "Hello?"

" _Ahh, yes. Hello,"_ a deep, raspy voice answered, " _I believe I have some information for you, Mr. Rogers, if you'll accept it. I do know, of course, that Mr. Stark likely has his Artificially Intelligent 'butler' tracking my location. However, it will likely take longer than expected as I am not using an easily trackable mode of contacting you on that phone."_

"Why did you call me?" Steve looked up at Tony and mouthed, 'Found them yet?"

Tony looked frustrated before mouthing back, 'No.'

" _I am simply calling to ask you to warn Tony that the Mandarin he will six moons soon face is a front to distract from a Potts' friend. If I were him, I'd enable very many autonomous fighter suits he can control. Tell Thor that Jane will need him before she finds an aether most dangerous that awakens dark Malekiths in nearly a year. And you, Steve. Two times around the sun and a friend you thought long lost will come after you and the agency will be found with an infestation of Hydras. I insist that you all work to prevent these events and ruin the chances of these threats from coming back at a later time. Now, I will leave you with this information. Hopefully, I eventually talk to you in person, but I doubt that will happen. I'm sure if I met any of you, I would immediately be taken in for questioning. Maybe I'll send one of my allies to work with you, but they will not know anything worth your while. Hang onto this phone. I will eventually contact you on it again. Farewell and good luck."_

"Wait! How did you know I had this phone?"

" _Simple. I had that Shawarma waitress give you the phone since I knew you'd be there. Now, I know Tony may be close to figuring out how to track me since he likely figured out it wasn't a satellite signal I was using, so goodbye,"_ the caller hung up.

"Tony?" Steve inquired.

"Nope. I didn't even get close. I had JARVIS trying to track the caller through satellite signals, but JARVIS informed me that there was no signal to track that way, so I was just starting to think of other ways they could be contacting you. Why did you let them hang up? From what I heard, you weren't even trying to distract them."

"I didn't need to do much, they had a lot to say, but they were aware you would be trying to track them. He even told me you likely would figure out he wasn't using satellite signal, but he didn't let slip how he was calling the phone," he started forwards and grabbed some paper from the small pile Tony had stacked next to him, "Do you have a pen I can use?"

"Sure, but I'd rather you not scribble over those notes until I have them entered into the database. Bruce wrote them when we were analysing the statues. Some theories and whatnot. How he deals with such simple things as pen and paper for his data tracking is beyond me."

"There's just something I need to write down. I'll write it on the back."

Steve tried to remember all the caller had said and wrote it down. Looking it over, he nodded his head and handed the paper back to Stark. Stark looked at him before he entered the last smidgen of data into his database before reading what Capsicle had written on the back.

He arched an eyebrow, "'Mandarin I will six moons soon face'? What the-"

"I think he means months, like how there's usually a full moon every month," Steve interrupted before he had to deal with Stark's slight proclivity for vulgar language.

"Sure. I was thinking along those lines, but who the hell is this Mandarin that's supposed to distract me from Pepper's 'friend?"

"That's what he meant? I had no idea what he meant when he said 'a Pott's friend'.'"

"Of course you didn't," Tony said before he muttered, "Autonomous fighter suits? I might just look into that…"

Steve was about to respond when he heard the others approaching.

"Find anything?"

* * *

 **Yes! It's finished and up. Beyond the beginning note, I'd like to tell you guys to not expect weekly updates. I can't spend enough time at a computer writing to do that. Also, I know this isn't very relevant, but I won't be around any technology next week, so won't be able to work on this as much. I'm also debating whether or not to fully pause in my attempts to update. I doubt I will though. Okay. Give me some feedback in reviews, favorite, or follow the story. I love any feedback so long as it's not intending to cause harm. Constructive criticism is nice, but do realize that I'm a more amateur writer than the expectations professionals, such as J.K. Rowling, live up to. I'm rambling because I'm tired and it's late so...**

 **Rock on my fellow guys and gals!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Ok, so, it's been a long while since I've updated this story. I want to start off by apologizing for the poor updating. I've been having some personal struggles. Plus, I had some difficult courses on top. Suffice it to say, I have not been in a good place, but there's no worries now as I'm updating! Yay! It's great! Now, I haven't gone through this to check for errors and such, so please feel free to tell me so I can make corrections if necessary. Questions if you are confused are also welcome and I will try to clarify things.**

* * *

"Now, I know Tony may be close to figuring out how to track me since he likely figured out it wasn't a satellite signal I was using, so goodbye," Adrian canceled the call. He coughed as he focused and his vocal chords changed again, "All that's left is to wait, I guess. I wasn't sure if that would all work, but I'm glad I got to hear Steve's voice again. Anyways, let's get you back to your mother, you little cutie. I'm sure she got a nice nap in." He smiled when Arashi rumbled again.

"Enjoy your little stroll?" Bilbo piped up when Adrian stepped back into the small clearing.

"Yes. I think Arashi enjoyed himself as well," Adrian paused as he tried to think of how to say what he wanted to say. Eh, best to just get it out fast, "I also called Steve and gave him some warning of the future to come."

"Won't that bugger up the timeline or whatever nonsense? Not to say I'm averse to it, but I believe it'd be best to leave things until it's at a point needing the most change."

"I already thought of that. The warning wasn't meant to be clear and I didn't give direct timing… Beyond that, what I said may actually just cause them to do similar things as before, but earlier."

"And what of your bond with the Captain?"

Adrian paused as he thought about it, "I do believe he is already searching for me- er, well, us. When I was talking to him he tried to keep me talking on the phone. I know that that meant he likely had Tony trying to track me. Also, I could hear the noises of trees creaking and leaves rustling on his end. I assume he somehow spotted us as we entered Central Park. Still, I plan to just approach them after an hour or so wherever they are. I just wanted some rest first."

Junn stepped out from behind the screens and voiced her concern, "Won't that be dangerous?"

"No idea, but I can defend myself. You guys, however, will need to stay back until I can get them calmed down. They will be quite on guard for a good while though once I introduce you guys on top of my appearance. Still, promise me you guys won't interfere until I signal you guys to step forward. Even if this doesn't turn out like I expect it to."

There was a moment's pause as Junn and Bilbo shared a hesitant look before reluctantly nodding.

"Good."

* * *

"Find anything?"

The deadly ginger's walking paused when she heard Steve's question, "Not yet."

"Ok," Steve was sure not to say anything more since the assassin seemed put out that she couldn't find anything.

"I thought I heard someone humming somewhere in a dense thicket of trees and bushes, but when I got to where they were there weren't any tracks. I was able to follow a bit of a trail of broken stick tips, but there wasn't enough to follow for more than a few feet in any direction," Barton piped up.

"How is that possible? The small bit you found is proof someone was there, but how did they not leave anything substantial?" Bruce asked, rubbing his eyes underneath a pair of glasses.

"No idea."

"Did _you_ find anything, Captain?"

"Not necessarily," this piqued their curiosity and he continued at their questioning looks, "I got a call on this cell phone the woman at that restaurant gave me. A man gave me what sounded like a warning. I wrote down what he said."

The paper was passed around and a few eyebrows rose in question of the strange message.

"Obviously this person either is trying to help us out of the good of their heart or they have ulterior motives. My guess is the latter," Natasha groused after analyzing the note.

"Do you think he's right about this 'agency'?" Bruce asked.

"I don't know, but I'll try to keep this 'warning' in mind for the future. I'm just confused about some of this so I'll have to think on it further," Steve said as he folded the piece of paper and slid it into his pocket.

"We'll need to locate Thor though, since the warning involved him as well. Last I saw him, he was searching from the sky," Barton spoke up.

Speak of the devil and he shall come. Thor landed in a crouch nearby with a heavy thud, "I was unable to locate anything of circumstance in my search. How fare you in the search?"

"Not really well, beyond the call Steve got on phone with a cryptic warning anyways."

"What is this warning you speak of?" he glanced down at the paper when it was handed to him, "What is the meaning of this? Lady Jane and such malekiths?"

"I was kind of hoping you'd have some idea," Steve answered.

"I shall see if more can be found out once I bring Loki back to Asgard to answer for his crimes."

"Good," Steve paused for a moment, "I guess we've been given some valuable information if any of it can be verified."

"I can easily have Jarvis watch over Pepper. If such a 'friend' or otherwise comes up, I can easily access their background, history, and anything else to see if they have a grudge to fill or some such psychopathic bullshit villains always seem to have. If there is, than we can easily conclude that the rest follows suit," Tony asserted before adding on in a slight ramble, "Moving on from that for the moment, I was thinking we could make Stark Tower HQ for our little vigilante group. I'll have to get some repairs done, what with there being a bit of damage, but I know there's still a lot of undamaged parts of the tower you guys could take up residence in."

"I could use a bit of a nap," Clint yawned.

"Alright, we'll head back to the tower, find some space suitable for everyone's needs, and figure out more from there."

With that everyone grabbed anything they had set down when they stopped and made their way back to the streets and Tony's tower.

* * *

Arashi was sitting on the ground by his mother with his eyes closed and head tilted back in a ray of sunshine, absorbing the warmth. After a couple minutes passed with him in the position, a small dragonfly suddenly landed on his nose. Arashi's eyes blinked open and looked at the dragonfly perching on his nose cross-eyed. It made his nose tickle. With a quick sneeze, the dragonfly took off while Junn looked around for the source of the sound.

"Junn, I have a question."

"Yes?"

"Why exactly is Arashi a dragon? I mean, is that what your original species looks like?"

"Actually Adrian, that's one of the special things about my kind. No two Mutata are born alike. Each baby has a preformed, 'Original Form' that they eventually change out of once their ability fully kicks in. Then they change to a new 'Chosen Form.' Usually, it's the form of their parents, but there was cases where children kept their Original Form or changed into something else. However, that was due to their way of changing being more uncommon or rare."

"Is there a specific time you expect it to happen?"

"Usually a couple weeks after hatching, but I have a feeling Arashi will be different."

Adrian glanced around the clearing, thinking, "I hadn't originally planned to go up to them so fast, you know. I was gonna develop a plan to create some sort of villain for them to face and defeat, leading to the discovery of a bunch of the information and all that nonsense, but then there'd be the problem of joining them and explanations galore. Also, I didn't think a long-term stay in this clearing would be a good idea, it may be almost impossible to find during the summer since the trees and foliage provide cover, but when autumn and winter hit this little safe-space will likely become laid bare to any searching eyes…"

Junn smiled, "I see. Plus, there'd also be strain in staying separate, but also so close to your bonded. I doubt fighting him would be an option."

"Well, them, yeah. I have two, Steve's my 'soulmate,' but there's also Tony who is my… let's go with 'soul friend' since I only have what seems a platonic bond possible with him."

"Okay, when do you intend for us to depart then?"

"Well, maybe in a few hours? I haven't fully figured out the exact time I want to find them… My plans kind of got all kerjiggled after my analysis of them. Do you have any ideas for how to approach them?"

"Maybe, but how about I make some drinks for us first before we start doing discussions of that sort?"

Before Adrian could say anything he was cut off by Bilbo's interjecting "God, yes! I haven't gotten to experience getting drunk yet as a human."

"I don't think that was the kind of drinks she was talking about."

"Humph. I'll just make one for myself."

"No, knowing you, you'd end up with terrible results."

"Fine! I won't drink… yet."

"Junn, just make some tea or something, please?"

"Sure."

With that they sat down cross legged in a circle on the ground and Junn started putting together a makeshift tea preparing station. Adrian smiled as Arashi crawled into his lap and promptly dozed off after a minute of petting.

"He seems to like you," Bilbo muttered, "Wouldn't stop wriggling and complaining when I tried to carry him."

"Well, I think he just has good taste," Adrian teased good-naturedly.

"Lucky for him, I don't disagree with his taste in companions."

Adrian smiled at Bilbo before accepting the slightly warm cup Junn presented to him. Junn sat down next to Adrian with two cups of tea and passed one to Bilbo. At her raised brow at Arashi's choice in snuggles Adrian simply shrugged.

"So, ideas for approaching the Avengers?" Adrian asked once everyone settled in.

* * *

Steve stared up at the massive skyscraper that was to be his new place of residence until further notice. Ironic, there was nothing left of the former 'Stark' originally plastered across the building except the 'A.' _Tony will likely find it just right to keep as a symbol for the "Avengers Tower" or whatever he decides to re-name it._

"I was thinking of keeping the building like that- with the 'A' I mean. Perfectly represents it's residents. But what to name it? Obviously it can't be Stark Tower anymore…"

Steve sighed as his prediction came true and Stark started trying to discuss names with Clint and Dr. Banner who both flat out refused 'Avengers Tower' before Stark even finished proposing it as a name. It would have a name eventually of course, but Steve was unsure whether he'd still be there when that happened. The tension between him and Stark might be too much for the group and Steve would willingly leave to decrease infighting with him. Given Tony's new turn of ideas, however, Steve planned on giving it a fair try before giving in and leaving for his own place.

"Alright my fellow men-in-tights and ladies, all the living space I told you about is up near the Penthouse space, but that won't be available until repairs are made since that's mainly where Loki caused damage." Observing Banner shifting in discomfort from knowing the part he also played, Tony smirked and added, "Even if it was Hulk smashing him into the floor, it was still his face that broke my floor. Besides, I watched the footage. 'Puny god?"

"That was Hulk. Not me," Banner protested, his face slightly reddening from embarrassment.

"You should take more credit, that was fantastic," Tony exclaimed with a bigger smirk.

"If you two are done, I think it'd be prudent to head up to the living spaces to decide who goes where," Both men turned to Agent Romanoff when she interrupted and Tony slowly nodded.

"Alright, this way if you'll follow me, Lady Spider."

* * *

 **There we go! It's up and I have started Chapter 13. My goodness. Again, I apologize for the crappy job I've done with this fanfic in terms of updating, but sometimes life has to throw a bus load of misery to make one stronger, better, or healthier... eventually (at least I hope, I've kept my story from ending so far) Please, feel free to Favorite, Follow, or Review this story to give me input (I love seeing some of the messages I've gotten on this fic so far, although there are a couple rather... tactless ones) and so you get notified when I do update, which will hopefully be sooner than it was for this one.**

 **Rock on my fellow peeps!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Sweet! So, I have an update! Much quicker this time. I hope those who were wanting more are happy! I do, after all, put a lot of work into my writing and hope people like it as much as I do... I guess for now I can say that the challenges have abated for the moment and I didn't have as much trouble bringing myself to work on this... Anyways, I'll leave the rest of what I wanted to say for the ending note... Read on and enjoy!**

* * *

"That's your idea?"

"You got any better plan? I just figured that if you wanted to be quick about it you could just request a meeting with them since they'll all be at the tower, right?"

"Actually? I'm not sure. There's likely already stuff that's changed. Probably though."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, it's nothing important at the moment Junn, I'll try to catch you up on the details at a later time."

"I'll take your word for it."

"Well, what's the approach then once I actually get to see them?"

"I think Junn, Arashi, and I should go up with you but hang back while you introduce yourself since that was what you had planned anyways. Like you told us, they'll likely be a bit hostile at first since you're a possible threat. Then you can warm them up to things by being honest. Though, you'll likely want to leave the explanation of coming from a different universe for a different day-same with soulmates unless you're asked about them- to prevent information overload. Given you haven't taken off that bracelet Odette gave you as a 'be-my-friend?' gift, I'd say that there's not a very high chance of you having to worry about explaining how you have soulmates."

"Bilbo, what should I introduce you as once we get things going?"

"I do like Mark Russo. While I did tease you about your choice, I find it has a pleasant ring to it."

"Alright… Junn, I'm not sure how to handle Arashi in such a situation. He's a completely strange alien that looks like a dragon to them."

"Adrian, it's alright. Arashi is already starting to show signs of picking a new form. Hopefully, he'll be more able to blend in before we head to meet these 'heroes' you seem so excited to meet."

"Yeah, hopefully… Actually, I'm an idiot!" Adrian exclaimed smacking himself in the forehead.

At the two questioning looks he got he explained, "I can manipulate visibility to an extent, remember?"

"Oh!" A few sheepish looks were exchanged, seems more than just Adrian forgot that.

" _Steve… I hope you haven't forgotten about me."_

" _How could I? You've been on my mind this whole time," Steve comforted Adrian._

" _That's good, I'd hate to lose you," he responded, biting his lower-lip. Steve felt a pulse of arousal hit him as his eyes were drawn to those perfectly red lips. Before he could think he leaned forward and claimed the other man's lips._

 _Adrian groaned and wrapped his arms around his neck as Steve picked him up and walked to a wall for support. "Steve," was breathily moaned from his lips._

 _Steve's eyes dilated at hearing the light-brunette's moan and he went from kissing Adrian's sinful lips to kissing down his neck. He stopped to inhale Adrian's scent, but frowned slightly when it seemed he couldn't discern a distinct smell. Despite the momentary confusion, Steve proceeded to suckle Adrian's neck, bringing out yet another moan from his lover. He felt the pants around his groin start to get tighter as he heard more of the lust-inducing moans from the man that was almost sinful in his effect on Steve._

" _Will you always love me like this?" Adrian hesitantly asked when they took a momentary break once they finished in their rutting makeout session._

 _Steve put his forehead against Adrian's and took a few moments to cherish the shared air before he boldly growled one word, "Always."_

 _Adrian's eyes lit up at the answer even as they dilated at the arousing growl it came with. He tackled Steve in a hug and pushed him to lie on his back before he started rubbing Steve's muscles._

" _How about I show you how you make me feel," he slyly smirked before he started licking down Steve's body. Steve looked at the seductive man as he approached his straining pants. His breath hitched when Adrian momentarily sucked his nipples and then again when he dipped his tongue into his belly-button. Steve could feel his arousal increasing past any point he had experienced before. Adrian started on his pants, but paused and looked up at him._

" _Steve," he said, "Time to get up from your nap."_

 _This greatly confused Steve. Then came another voice, "Capsicle, I'll start experimenting on you if you don't get your lazy carcass up. We need to have a team meeting and you've been asleep for almost an hour. I don't know how you deal with this 'team leadership' business. I've only been doing it for half an hour since you conked out and I'm already debating putting Pepper in charge like I did with the company."_

Steve sat up and opened his eyes to find Stark and Dr. Banner staring at him. He quickly realized he had a bit of a situation in his nether regions and quickly shifted to try to hide it until it receded or he could shower before the meeting Tony mentioned. That dream though, that was… Bad. He shouldn't be having dreams such as that with a male as the partner. It's disgusting for him to do so. Being attracted to his same sex is heavily punishable and disgraceful…Still, as he thought back to the contents of the dream, he couldn't help getting aroused.

"Hello? Earth to Capsicle! Is your brain still thawing?"

"What, Tony?"

"I was talking to you, were you not paying attention?"

"Uh…"

"Unbelievable. My father was obsessed with finding someone who apparently doesn't even have the manners to pay attention when someone is trying to talk to them about something important."

"Tony, I apologize for not paying attention. I'm just a bit… foggy still from just waking up."

"I'll forgive you I guess. Next time, though, I should make you work for my forgiveness… Back to the more important topic aside from myself. The meeting. I got a message from someone down at the front doors that a group of people were looking to meet with us apparently. One in particular said that it was important and that you should know him."

Steve felt a rising suspicion that he'd know exactly who it is.

"Guy called Adrian Leeson. You know him?"

"...I do."

"Care to explain?"

"Well, I first met him when I caught him falling from a building…"

* * *

Adrian hastily sat up as he recalled that he was waiting in a chair in the 'lobby' of the former Stark Tower. He collected his thoughts as he observed the people in the vicinity of the front desk. ' _Strange dream. Didn't mean to doze off, but I actually liked it… Not surprising given its subject.'_ He stood up and stretched.

"Mr. Leeson? Mr. Stark sent a message back that he'll see you, but it'll be in about half an hour."

" you for your time…Elizabeth," Adrian smiled at the woman after catching her name from the ID badge. His brow furrowed momentarily "If I can call you that?"

"Oh, please. You're well-mannered enough, call me Eliza, Mr. Leeson."

"Alright, so long as you call me Adrian," he winked at her which resulted in a surprised giggle from the woman.

"Well, Adrian. I'm certain you and your friends can find something to do for the next half-hour. I have my lunch break in 15 minutes . Maybe we can all get to know each other? As friends?" she offered.

"I think that'll have to wait for another time. Although, I have been trying to get to know more of the locale, but don't know of very many cafes or places to visit..."

"How about my favorite cafe? I personally know the owner and it's just down the street. It even has a little book shop. I can take you all there sometime."

"Perfect. How about you give me your number so we can pick a date?"

"Alright."

* * *

"So… You're telling me that the people we had just been searching for came to us instead and requested to meet with us and I told them to wait another half an hour?"

"I suppose I am."

"Great! Anything else we should know, Bomb Pop?"

Steve frowned at the nickname and thought for a moment. He decided to leave out his strange feelings and dream- those aren't relevant anyways. "No."

"Got any ideas what to prep for in a meeting with these people?" Barton asked.

"Do you really think we need to prep for meeting a few people? You sound like you're expecting them to be Bogey Men or something."

"I just don't like the thought of unknowns, especially after Loki and his scepter of wonder."

"I'm sure they're not to be worried about, Clint," Steve consoled, "Still, considering risks and some of my suspicions, I think we should meet them in a space that's already been damaged by the battle."

"Your 'suspicions'?" Natasha inquired.

"I think they might've had something to do with the glass-encased aliens."

"Of course you do. Why, with your 'big man brain' did you think they aren't to be worried about then?"

"Stark, don't start," Steve warned.

"Maybe you should be more forthcoming... I'm going to the workshop. Jarvis?"

" _Sir, Miss Potts has repeatedly phoned."_

"Take a message and tell her I'll talk to her once she gets back from her trip. Now, find a suitable place for WWE: Avengers Style."

" _As you wish, sir."_

Steve watched him go before turning back to the rest of the group, "Any concerns."

"If it makes things go smoother- I can escort this group up and stay near them when they arrive so we don't have to worry about surprise attacks. I can certainly take them out before too many problems occur," Natasha suggested.

"How do you intend to do that?"

"You'll see if that's part of the plan."

Steve stared at her for a moment before turning to address everyone else, "Anyone else?"

The others shrugged as Dr. Banner spoke up, "I don't think much can be planned for this sort of thing. We have no idea what will be coming up or how they'll react, so you can't base much off that. That's the only concern I have- the unpredictability. I don't want Mr. Green making an unexpected appearance if I can help it. Natasha's idea seems like the best idea for any semblance of a plan."

Steve nodded, but didn't agree to let Romanoff carry out her plan, "As much as I agree that it fits for a semblance of a plan as to addressing this mystery group- I doubt that it will work. The head of their group already seems familiar with all of us, so having you get them would probably put them on guard. I apologize- I find myself surprisingly tired," Yeah that should work as an excuse to go back to his rooms and think, "so let's just roll with things once they come up. There was only a few, right?"

"Yes."

"Then we can handle them if they try something. This meeting is starting to seem pointless. Any other news or input for the good of the team?"

Once he saw everyone shake their heads he dismissed them, but not before telling them to meet where Jarvis picked in 20 minutes. He walked back to his rooms and laid down before contemplating his previous dream. Why was he dreaming about Adrian so much? He barely knew the guy! To top it off, he's a guy- Steve shouldn't even be thinking about another male _that_ way. It'd make him a public disgrace, let alone how it'd impact him personally. He can't even justify it being a simple fantasy that everyone experiences at some point since he found himself wanting it despite his past-built morals telling him it's wrong.

' _I don't know what to do about these thoughts… And the main subject of those thoughts is coming up here in 10 minutes. I'll have to keep my distance- I don't even know how badly such… behavior is viewed in society and I don't want my attraction getting in the way. I'll distance myself, better that than the trouble I'd get otherwise.'_ With a nod at his decision, Steve changed out of his now well-worn uniform into a light blue flannel over a white tee with a pair of khakis. On his way out of the room he shrugged on a brown leather jacket.

"Jarvis?" He hesitantly called out.

" _Captain, I found a location for your meeting with Mr. Leeson and his entourage."_

"And?"

" _The bar area in Mr. Starks penthouse is acceptable for possible fighting; he sealed it off from the rest of the penthouse in order to keep you and the others draft-free from the windows. Also, the bar area is the location of the elevator exit, which allows confrontation without further invasion of Avenger living space."_

"Thank you, Jarvis," strange talking to something that has no visible mouth or body, "Please inform the others. After all, we meet them in under 10 minutes."

" _Already done, Captain."_

"Good."

* * *

"Are you nervous?" Bilbo teased when he saw Adrian glance in the reflecting wall of the elevator and run his hands through his hair and adjust his jacket to fix his appearance after they got in it.

"Of course not!" At the shared look of disbelief he received from both Junn and Bilbo he blushed, "Okay, so what if I am? It's not like you meet a band of super heroes, your platonic soulmate, and get to speak more with your soulmate everyday."

"True." Junn grinned, "Although I think you might get past speaking-terms quite fast."

"Junn!" Adrian blushed.

"Bilbo agrees with me. Right?"

When both of them looked at him- one expecting support and the other daring him to say a word- he raised his hands in defense, "Don't bring me into this. I got my fun out of teasing Adrian enough already and don't forget, I'm going by Mark now. Still, I'm sure the Captain will enjoy making Adrian blush like that more often than not."

Trying not to smile at the thought of Steve Adrian punched Bilbo in the shoulder. Junn giggled and shifted the bag she was carrying Arashi in.

"In all honesty though, Adrian," Junn spoke softly after a minute of silently riding the elevator up, "You have no reason to be nervous. I can't see your soulmates truthfully rejecting you and you can easily defend yourself if we're attacked. You know Mark and I can defend ourselves as well, we did hold our own against multitudes of those lanion bastards."

"I know…" he sighed, "Doesn't help the butterflies, but that's partly just excitement. Otherwise, I'm unsure of what to say. I mean, I can't just go 'Hi, I'm Adrian. I hope you liked my glasswork!'"

"Ahem."

At hearing the noise he turned around to see that they had arrived and the elevator doors had opened halfway through his sentence. He suddenly found himself face to face with some suspicious, yet disbelieving faces.

"Uh… Hi."

* * *

 **Alright! That's the chapter done! Ok, so I had some things to bring up here (sorry, it's going to be a bit of a long schpeel, but I'd very much appreciate if you read it). First off, I hope people are doing well. I don't want to seem like some person who doesn't care about their readers- I felt bad enough when I struggled to bring myself to write chapter 12- so feel free to review and all that good stuff (feels great to receive positive input). Next thing, I was thinking about how fast this chapter came about in comparison to the previous one. I kind of realized that part of what had me stuck was making things advance. I wasn't sure what to do and, with my own personal problems, it was far too easy to try to ignore the issue. You can kind of see it in some dialogue where I had pointless talking about previous plans of "pretending to be a villain" or having the awesome Black Widow resume her persona of Natalie Rushman (though that's not explicitly stated). Steve's response at the end of the 'meeting' is literally at the point where I kind of just decided that the over-planning was pointless and to just go with things as they come along. Glad I finally sat down and thought about things though, cause now I have more of an idea of how I want to advance. Please feel free to Review, Favorite, or Follow. Such input actually pushed me towards doing this chapter *wink-wonk* Mickey *wink-wonk***

 **Anyways, rock on my fellow gals and guys!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Yay! I finally got to finishing this chapter! It has been a little while since I updated, but here we go. Fair warning, there's some internal homophobia and more adult themes mentioned. It's not worth changing ratings, but the warning is just so no one is shocked. I'll have more to say at the end of this chapter. For now? Read on!**

* * *

"-I can't just go 'Hi, I'm Adrian I hope you liked my glasswork!'"

Amused at catching the end of the conversation that had obviously been taking place in the elevator, Steve cleared his throat to gain the man's attention. Adrian quickly turned around and stiffened as he took in the group's appearance. Steve frowned for a moment as he recalled that Thor had left with Loki to find Dr. Selvig who would help him with transportation and Tony had yet to show up, but quickly shifted his attention back to the subject at hand- the rather suspicious, enthralling man who was raising his hand in a slight awkward wave.

"Uh… Hi."

Steve raised an eyebrow at the lack-luster response.

"Well, this is…" Adrian rubbed the back of his head, "Not how I expected meeting you all to go, but I guess getting that out there is for the best anyways. I'm sure you were all wondering."

"Certainly. After all, that was quite the mass of Chitauri who would've been detrimental in the battle, but I was more curious as to how," Adrian turned to Dr. Banner who was curiously looking at Adrian like a fascinating new specimen under a microscope.

"All in good time, Doctor. However, I think some introductions are due," Adrian gave a dramatic bow that shocked Steve into a small smile at the silly theatrics before he schooled his expression, "I, as you heard, am Adrian. Behind me is Junn carrying her child Arashi, though I don't think she wants you to see him at this time. Beside her is my companion Mark. We wanted to meet you all after helping out in the battle."

Glancing at each other the Avengers simply started down the line.

"Captain Steve Rogers."

"Clint, Clint Barton."

The deadly assassin maintained her silence a few moments before quietly introducing herself in a dark tone, "Natasha Romanoff."

"You already seem to know, but I'm Bruce Banner."

"Thor is unavailable due to familial duties, but Tony was supposed-"

Steve was cut off by Tony entering, "I'm Tony Stark," he winked at Adrian, "but you probably already knew that."

Steve gazed curiously as Adrian subtley rubbed his wrist before smirking at Tony, "Oh, aren't you full of it, and yes I know of the name, Stark, but not in the way you think."

Tony rubbed his ear when it felt like something, probably a random bug, bit him, but otherwise dismissed the slight tingling at having the first words spoken, "So, Fred, what brings you and the Mystery Gang to the Avengers' Tower?"

"'Avengers' Tower'? Really? That's the best a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist can come up with? I would've expected more… Pizazz."

"It's a work in progress."

Adrian smirked at the man playfully before schooling his expression and addressing the other four, "Well, after the fighting I figured you lot would likely try to stick together as a group considering everything. I wanted to see about joining your vigilante group. After all, I'm sure we can be of some help."

"Really?" Natasha crossed her arms with a skeptic eyebrow raised, "And what brought you to that conclusion?"

"Well, considering your known status as above average people, I'm sure you'll be off and away on missions or otherwise occupied. I do think you'd probably like someone who can help cater to everyone's needs or make this place more welcoming to come back to. I can also assist on missions if you feel it necessary."

"Wouldn't you just be in harm's way?"

"Not quite. I myself have an array of skills and abilities at my command. I can easily hold myself against threats the average person would immediately perish to, although I'm a bit more pacifistic than people expect."

"And what proof do you have that you, as much as you've verified your work in the Chitauri 'glasswork', have as much ability as you claim to hold?"

Adrian raised an eyebrow at Natasha's skepticism before he observed the room. His eyes landing on the broken windows, he smirked before waving his hand towards the shards and window frame. Everyone else watched, disbelieving, until the glass rose into the air. Shocked faces watched as the glass pieces amassed in the center of the frames before spreading out to fill the empty space. The glass seemed to melt together before solidifying, leaving the windows looking like new.

"I have a fair amount of proof if you're so skeptic?"

"You haven't shown you have any capability in fighting."

"I will admit. I'm not a well-practiced fighter. I can hold my own, but I plan on rectifying that slight weakness."

"Oh really?" Tony asked, a manic glint entering his eyes as he raised an arm to be armored by his gauntlet. He shot a beam at Adrian in a surprise attack, sure the man would be fine and that he could fix anything that would be broken.

It stopped mid air in front of Adrian's raised hand, "Trigger-happy much?"

The energy fizzled out as Adrian clenched his hand into a fist. His head tilted inquisitively when Tony looked at him appraisingly.

"I was expecting at least a dodge or something, not magic hands."

"Well, I don't usually meet expectations. So? Can we join your group?"

The second half was addressed to Steve, who blinked at having Adrian's attention back on him. He swallowed, that display unexpectedly stirring him, before assessing the three staring back at him expectantly. Despite part of his mind telling him allowing the subject of his wicked thoughts to stay was a horrible idea, a much larger part was yelling at him to stop thinking about something that was an obvious 'yes!' Adrian gave a large smile that made something in Steve twinge happily when Steve nodded.

* * *

" _Despite the devastation in what has been confirmed as an extraterrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as The Avengers has been cause not only for comfort but for…"_

" _It's just, really great knowing they're out there. Someone who is watching over us-"_

" _I LOVE YOU THOR!"_

" _And there was pew pew and then the air goes phwoar and this green guy walks up and he's like RAHH!"_

" _I don't exactly feel safe with those things out there."_

" _It just seems like there's a lot they're not telling us."_

" _Superheroes in New York? Gimme a break."_

" _These so-called 'heroes' have to be held responsible for the destruction done to the city. This was their fight, where are they now?"_

" _Tough questions are being asked about The Avengers themselves. Their sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance."_

" _What? That this is all somehow their fault?"_ a women on one of the many helicraft screens Nick Fury had chaotically depicting the news coverage of the battle and The Avengers spoke, " _Captain America saved my life. Wherever he is and wherever any of them are I would just; I want to say thank you."_

" _ **Where are The Avengers?"**_ One of the councilmen asked from his video display.

"I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts. I'd say they've earned a leave of absence."

" _ **And the Tesseract?"**_ Another councilwoman asked.

"The Tesseract is where it belongs- out of our reach."

" _ **That's not your call."**_

"I didn't make it. I just didn't argue with the god that did," Nick Fury responded with his arms crossed."

" _ **So you let him take it and the war criminal Loki who should be answering for his crime."**_

"Oh, I think he will be."

" _ **I don't think you understand what you've started, letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous."**_

"They surely are and the whole world knows it. Every world knows it."

" _ **Was that the point of all this? A statement?"**_

"A promise," Fury said before allowing the displays of the council to turn off before leaving the room. After arriving on the main deck of the helicraft, Agent Hill caught up to him.

"Sir, how does it work now? They've gathered in Stark's tower and there's talk from the agents about there possibly being someone out there already. We get into a situation like this again- what happens then?"

"They'll be there."

"You really sure about that?"

"I am," Fury calmly said.

"Why?"

"Because we'll need them to."

* * *

"Hey Point Break! You didn't get to meet them before you left for Dr. Selvig, but we have new members of the team. Let me introduce, Fred, Shaggy, and Daphne. Of course Velma has yet to make an appearance and they haven't let us meet Scoobs yet, but I'm sure they will in good time," Tony greeted Thor, who raised an eyebrow at the introduction before addressing the group tony had gestured to with it.

"Greetings. It is unfortunate we did not get to meet until now. I was otherwise occupied with my brother and retrieving the Tesseract."

"That's quite alright Thor, but let me actually introduce myself. I don't think you want to refer to us by Tony's chosen nicknames, after all."

"No, indeed."

"Alright, well I am Adrian Leeson. My companions are Junn and Mark Russo."

"It is good to meet you, son of Lee and compatriots. Forgive me, but we must proceed."

Adrian merely nodded in acknowledgement before watching things unfold. The others had all gathered on a bridge in Central Park with several SHIELD agents maintaining a perimeter against civilian 'fans.' Thor was keeping firm hold of Loki in a metal muzzle to stop his silver tongue as they approached the middle of the bridge. He watched silently next to Steve as Selvig pulled out a device- which would be Thor's transport- and allowed the Tesseract to be transferred from the case Tony brought to the device by Dr. Banner with a pair of tongs. Adrian subtly stepped closer to Steve as he stared at the transferral with furrowed brows. Thor grabbed Dr. Selvig's shoulder in a farewell before taking the device. Adrian raised an eyebrow as Natasha leaned towards Clint and said something indiscernible in his ear that caused him to smirk from behind his sunglasses at Loki.

Thor held the device out to Loki who took it after a quick glance at him. Adrian met his eye as he looked around and reciprocated the nod he gave everyone in farewell. He twisted the handle he was holding, activating the Tesseract. Blue light encompassed the two before they vanished with a surge of light upwards. Everyone stepped back as the two vanished before they started separating to the vehicles that they had used to get there, with a few handshakes to maintain a facade. Adrian, deciding that it'd probably be better not to push it, got in the car with Tony and Bruce to head back to the tower. Steve got on his motorcycle and headed off in a different direction to throw off people before he'd take a circle route back to the tower.

* * *

A couple weeks had passed since they had first met Adrian, but he seemed quite adept at making himself useful. Tony has had no troubles so far since he sought Adrian for help in reconstructing the tower and then renovating to make room for the members of the vigilante group. Of course, Adrian made some of his own changes to the place that no one minded. A sizable garden on a terrace where he made sure to plant some of the seeds his tree friend had given him was just one of the few. Steve thought back and remembered being quite surprised when he stumbled upon the garden one day looking for a quiet place to sketch. Noticing him Adrian had made a bench with some effort and Steve gladly sat among the lovely flowers and plants that probably shouldn't have already been so far along in growth, but Steve simply dismissed it as being something Adrian did. After all, the plants had all shifted slightly whenever Adrian walked past. ' _He's certainly attractive. I can agree with the plants on that much.'_ Steve remembered thinking as he started sketching mindlessly, watching Adrian walk through the garden with a small smile on his face.

"I didn't expect to see you… well… I mean."

Steve had raised an eyebrow at the light blush filling Adrian's cheeks, "What?"

"Well… It's just that you didn't seem happy about my presence, and you've been avoiding me so I wasn't expecting to see you around me at all," Steve still felt bad as he remembered the man turning away, giving away how hurt he had felt about that fact.

"Well, I hope you'll forgive my… distrust, but I wasn't quite prepared for another person in the group- let alone staying here in Stark's tower." Of course Steve wasn't going to mention the fact that he had been trying to stop his attraction to the man in front of him. Instead he had smiled comfortingly at him before going back to his mindless sketching as he watched Adrian continue on in his caretaking of the garden. He had felt very divided when his stomach twinged at the sight of an attractive backside as Adrian bent over to check for any produce from a plant. Instead of focusing on the man, Steve had tried to focus on his sketch before realizing that would definitely fail as he had clearly sketched Adrian, looking graceful walking among the plants despite the bit of sweat that seemed to cling to his skin. Steve had been almost tempted to step forward and teasingly lick Adrian's albeit sweaty neck, but shook his head as soon as he realized where his mind was going and blushed. Adrian's eyebrow raised as Steve had stammered out some excuse (something about needing to go to the bathroom) and hurried inside to escape the man who could seem to unravel Steve and leave him all bothered simply by being nearby. It's not like he would have a chance with the gorgeous man even if what he was was accepted. It is surely unfortunate that he had missed the look of longing he received as he left the terrace garden. Since then he had only tried to avoid him further. He was just glad no one seemed to have noticed so far.

"Steve?"

"Huh?" Steve shook his head to disperser the thought of the moment a few days ago and focused on the man who seemed to be trying to get his attention.

"I was trying to tell you about the progress made on the tower. As a matter of fact it concerned you since we finally finished your little suite with all that you requested. As well as some choice alterations for when you finally choose to stop being the boyscout virgin and actually get laid for once," Steve sighed as Tony again laid down, not-so-subtly, that he thought Steve should get a girl and get laid as soon as possible to get rid of the proverbial 'stick in his ass.' Instead of giving Tony's bawdy grin a response, Steve stood up from where he had stopped to sit and think for a moment and headed to his rooms.

Steve groaned when he found what Tony had talked about. The bed was king-sized- enough room for two people- and had privacy curtains tied up at the posts, but that's not what was the biggest part of the problem. What was the problem was what looked like a small bar and the possible contents of two drawers, one innocent looking among his dresser drawers and the other in his bedside table (both only giving hints with little hearts on the knobs). He picked up a note that was laid over a few containers of lube, condoms, and massage oil.

 _For when she's in a bit more spunky mood. Though, knowing you, this stuff will likely be found in the trash bin underneath your desk with the contents of the other drawer. Seriously though, Cap, at least keep this stuff. It's the basics you need- even if you only have sex once you marry._

 _-Tony_

 _P.S. You can also ask after Adrian if you don't find all_ our hard work _satisfying._

Steve's eyebrows shot up as he realized he'd have to go through the other drawer, but decided to take the advice for what it is and closed the drawer with everything in it. He turned to the other drawer and blushed at what he found in it. Steve may be up for trying new things, but he didn't like the thought of using anything in that drawer. He grabbed the trash bin and started putting things into it from the drawer, thinking as he went through it.

' _Hmm… Whips are definitely going… Along with all these restraints and blindfolds… Maybe keep a couple blindfolds… Definitely not this… whatever this is. How much does Tony expect_ _me to use some of this? Maybe I'll keep a couple of these, not sure what they are, but they don't seem quite as… malicious? Hmm… Ok, now I know he has to be joking with this. Who even makes these?!'_ Steve carried on in this fashion until he had satisfactorily cleared out the drawer of the things that made him uncomfortable to even imagine using with his partner- can't really say wife since an image of Adrian immediately drifted to mind as he thought. He was left with some blindfolds, a couple of large interesting rings, and some choice clothing that he didn't imagine he'd likely ever wear, but one can never be quite sure. He then moved the massage oils to the drawer with the sparse items, but left the other items in his bedside table. He walked out, slightly blushing as his mind wandered to Adrian and the hint he had gotten to see of the man's backside. He realized why he had decided to keep a few things Tony left him and turned back around, resolving to get rid of all the stuff. Keeping it meant he had plans for a future with Adrian, but that mustn't happen. Steve doubted marriage was even possible between the two of them, and yet, he found himself still thinking of Adrian even as he subtly distributed the plain items in the unfinished rooms of the other guys and got rid of the blindfolds and rings. Besides Adrian probably didn't have any interest in him.

* * *

"Adrian? Where are you?" Junn called out as she stepped into the garden, trying to find the man who she believed must have Arashi with him. She hadn't seen either of them much since the two were developing the bond Junn knew they had- playing and sometimes laying on the couch with Arashi cuddled up to Adrian while he read or tinkered- but this was getting concerning since she hadn't seen even a hint of Adrian since the day after he had come from his garden with a hopeful little smile a few days ago. She frowned as she remembered what they had briefly talked about. Steve had been completely avoiding Adrian up to that point and he hadn't had any idea why. Adrian, while he maintained a facade with the other heroes, had not been doing well. Junn had seen him staring longingly after Steve, she had even noticed the slightly unwilling return of such stares when Steve thought no one was looking. She thought back to the day she found him, but was jarred out of her thoughts when her call was finally answered.

"I'm… I'm here Junn."

She swung towards the noise and started when she found the previously empty bench occupied, "Where have you been?"

"I haven't been anywhere, Junn. Just going around like normal."

"Invisible?"

"Maybe."

"Adrian, isn't that a bit draining to maintain everyday? Why are you doing it?"

"It's nothing, Junn."

"It doesn't seem like nothing. Even Arashi is giving you a look."

She watched Adrian turn to look at Arashi sitting next to him and giggle at his face. Arashi had somehow managed to achieve a raised eyebrow, "Well, of course you'd sell me out. Brat."

Arashi snuffed at Adrian before he turned and flew off, leaving Adrian to face Junn who was replicating the raised brow and slowly tapping her foot- waiting for an explanation.

"Well, see, uh… IwastryingnottomakeSteveuncomfortable."

"What?" Junn blinked at the rush of words.

Adrian sighed, "I was trying not to make Steve uncomfortable."

"Really? What makes you think he'd be uncomfortable just by you being there?"

"Well, I was the one helping Tony with his room and I may have seen the, um, toys Tony was putting in one of the drawers. Plus, he was avoiding me before anyways, so I figured he wouldn't feel so disconcerted if he didn't even know I was there."

"I don't think hiding from him is the right answer, though. If anything, he needs to get used to your presence. After all, even if he tries to deny it, he is your soul mate and is attracted to you. I've seen him looking at you when you weren't hiding. He certainly is attracted to you. I just don't know why he's resisting his feelings."

"What? You mean he actually likes me?" Adrian's eyes lit up.

"I certainly think so, but I think you should talk to him anyways."

"Alright. Arashi?" The dragon came at hearing his name, "Why don't you stay with your mom here? Maybe she can try to help you figure out how to transform purposefully, not on accident."

"What?" Junn asked excited that Arashi had actually transformed.

"Yeah. He was chasing a snake that somehow was in my garden when he apparently transformed into one. Loads bigger though, scared the crap out of me when he came slithering back. He couldn't change back for over an hour and even then I don't think he meant to."

He left Junn to excitedly talk Arashi through transforming. Time to find Steve.

* * *

 **There's that chapter finished! I hope there's no confusion or mistakes and the things I warned of weren't too upsetting. No one but me looks at my work before I update the fanfic. Tell me if there's any problems. Don't forget to follow this work so you can get notified of when I update since I don't quite have a regular update time. Favorite and review to give me input. I love seeing input!**

 **Rock on my fellow gals and guys!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Alright! So, I meant to get this chapter done and posted much sooner than this, but external factors interfered a bit- the weekend I planned on completely finishing and doing the whole posting ended up being a family trip to a music festival for a good few days... This chapter also didn't want to get written in some spots, so if there's some awkward moments or such, you get why. Anyways...**

 **Read on!**

* * *

"Steve?"

Steve startled and closed his sketchbook to hide the drawing he had been working on when he heard the subject of his sketch calling his name.

"Oh. Here you are," Adrian glanced around at the decorations of the room he had commandeered for himself. Of course, that wasn't obvious, the main room just looked like a lounge.

"Yes? Were you looking for me? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah…"

Steve immediately stood up dropping his sketchbook. As he bent down to pick it up he quickly asked, "Does the team need to be assembled?"

Bending down at the same time and blushing as Steve's hand brushed his, Adrian lightly calmed the man as he passed him the sketchbook, "No, what's got you so jumpy?"

"Just… a little tense. What's wrong then that required me?"

"I think we should talk."

Steve's eyes widened in shock a moment before he cleared his throat, "About?"

"This problem between us."

"Between us?"

Adrian glared at the man skeptically, "You know… The discomfort you seem to be in whenever I make an appearance. The avoiding me. Me going invisible just so you don't feel uncomfortable? That problem. Why are you so repulsed by me? Was it something I did?"

Steve's eyes again widened as he quickly processed what Adrian just said. ' _He made himself invisible to prevent my discomfort? He's noticed my tenseness? I thought I was hiding it well. Though I guess my avoidance of him probably made him more intent on observing me when he has found me.'_ Out loud Steve quietly muttered, "I had no idea."

"Yeah well," Adrian rubbed the back of his neck, "But what was it? Was it my comments around Zac Efron definitely being hot but not my type of guy? Or was it my joking flirting with Tony? I've only flirted because he starts it! Wait… Do you have a problem with me being gay?"

Steve thought back to what he was talking about, he remembered the conversation that the comments came about in…

* * *

 _Steve shook his head as he stepped into the communal area Tony had set up for the group, he could here Tony and Natasha fervently discussing something at the table, but he didn't quite hear exactly what yet. He sat down at the table that was already set for everyone who was currently residing in the tower. They ate in the communal area since it's where Tony set up the kitchen and dining area Adrian requested and Steve could smell something delicious cooking._

" _So you're telling me you'd rather get laid once with Lady Gaga than marry Taylor Swift?"_

 _Steve raised a brow at Tony's statement, especially considering his incredulous voice._

" _Yes. If I had to pick between the two. Lady Gaga seems like she would be much more interesting in bed. Are you telling me you'd rather marry Taylor Swift? You, a playboy bachelor?"_

" _It'd mean more chances with her in bed. Besides, I wouldn't be permanently married to her. I'd love to have a song written about me."_

" _So you'd pump and dump her? Well, don't let Pepper here you say that."_

" _Of course, she'd probably try to behead me with one of her portfolios."_

 _Steve startled when the most arousing laugh he'd ever heard came from beside him where Adrian was setting some food on the table, "More like she'd have JARVIS lock you out of your workshop."_

 _Tony held his hand to his chest as he gasped in mock-offense, "She'd never!"_

 _Adrian had just shaken his head before asking, "What were you two discussing anyways?"_

" _Well, we were talking about celebrities and suddenly came upon the question of if we would rather get laid with Lady Gaga or marry Taylor Swift," Natasha told him._

" _Okay…" Adrian just glanced away obviously disinclined to say either was a good option._

 _Tony chose that moment to notice the food, "Finally! I was drooling worse than a saint bernard at the smell."_

 _Adrian smiled, "It's nothing elaborate, just a simple chicken parmesan and some garlic breadsticks. Would anyone like a drink other than water though?"_

 _Tony gave no answer other than to stick a forkful of the food into his mouth and groaned at the delicious taste._

" _I'll take that as a 'no' for Tony, for now."_

" _Can you get me a glass of that Merlot you bought a few days ago?"_

" _Certainly, Nat."_

 _Steve watched as he poured some of the red wine into a glass for her before pouring one for him. He paused before raising a questioning brow at Steve with the bottle in hand, which he followed by pouring another glass at the man's nod._

" _Back to the previous conversation, we haven't even brought up any male celebrities," Tony said with a small smirk._

" _Indeed. I hadn't expected you to be up to it however."_

" _Well, when a partner is good at pleasuring, it doesn't quite matter what tools they use," he followed this with a conspiratorial wink._

" _...Alright. Well, I would be down to clown with Zac Efron, but I think I'd offer up Reynolds as the marriage option," Natasha offered._

" _Really? That's who you default to?"_

" _What's wrong with that? Ryan Reynolds is entertaining and Zac Efron is certainly hot. Not really my type of guy though," Everyone glanced at Adrian in surprise at his sudden add to the conversation._

" _Now that's something I'm curious about."_

" _What do you mean, Nat?"_

" _What's your type?"_

 _Steve shook his head knowing what she was probably thinking. She had barely started trying to hook him up with various women despite any protests he had. He was just thankful it was only a couple every once in a while that she mentioned. Too bad she didn't realize that, despite his attempts to do otherwise, that he wanted to date Adrian. No, he shouldn't think about that._

" _Well… I know I like caring, passionate guys who would be able to cherish me and be cherished by me, more toned and muscular, and lighter shades of hair… I like a man who has some scruff and hair or can vary between that and clean-shaven. Close to my height, but not shorter than me… Blue eyes I could get lost in like the sky. Honestly, despite my orientation, I have some more old-fashioned views. I wouldn't want to be intimate unless I knew for sure they would stay with me and I could trust them with my life beyond a doubt; and where I'm from, that's not as difficult to figure out. Beyond that, I want someone who will treat me as an equal and communicate with me. Lord knows how irritating it is for me when people fail to communicate with me on things and I find out about plans last minute or something… Obviously, my type would be someone dedicated, not only to me, but to many different things in life. Lastly, my type includes those I can share some art-time with or such things like reading, cuddling, or movies…"_

 _Steve started when he realized that Adrian had greatly described him and shifted slightly in discomfort. His feelings were possibly returned? That just makes things more difficult!_

 _Natasha, surprisingly didn't quite make the connection Steve did, but she did notice his shifting in discomfort. Her eyes narrowed at his response, 'Probably thinking I'm being homophobic about Adrian,' Steve thought._

* * *

Steve jolted out of the memory as Adrian coughed to get his attention, "Well? Is my sexuality a problem?"

"What? No!"

"Then why is it that you continue to be so stand-offish and tense whenever I interact with you?"

"I…"

"You aren't gonna tell me, are you?"

Steve just looked at Adrian, speechless.

"You know what? Fine. I thought that maybe you'd communicate with me like I wanted, but no. Go on. Continue with your. Your. YOUR WAYS! And I'll be waiting here. In _my_ rooms... For _you_. Get out."

Steve paled as he realized that Adrian just said the small lounge area he had been coming to every few days for an hour or so to rest, read, or sketch was actually part of the man's rooms (No wonder he had found it so comforting and alluring). He was too distracted by that fact that he didn't catch the sobbed 'you'. At Adrian's firm order though, he stood and allowed Adrian to push him out until Adrian was staring glumly from the door he had open.

Before he could open his mouth to say anything, Adrian interrupted, "When you are ready to communicate and try to be at least cordial instead of the frost king, I'll be here. Now, go!" His order was emphasized with the door being slammed.

Steve stared, shocked at the sudden turn of events. He was just going to leave when the door opened momentarily. Steve's sketchpad hitting him in his face cut off anything he was going to say. He picked it up off the floor and took off down the hall.

"What's with the door slamming?"

Steve paused at Agent Romanoff's inquiry, "Nothing of you concern."

"Your face says otherwise."

"Well, just a little talk between Adrian and I didn't go down very well."

"Meaning?" the deadly assassin crossed her arms.

"Adrian came looking for me to talk about the proverbial elephant in the room whenever he and I have interacted. He had noticed that I get a bit tense and such around him."

"It's not very hard to notice."

"Oh. Well, I found out he had been going around hidden so as to not cause me discomfort. The problem began when he asked me why I was acting stand-offish. He asked me what he did that made me repulsed by him. He went so far as to ask if it was because he had shown his… orientation."

"Is it? After all, you are from a time where homosexuality wasn't accepted at all. It's not hard to see that as a possible influence."

"Well, I guess one could say that it technically is why, but not exactly because _he's_ gay."

Natasha's brow shot up, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I didn't even explain to him before he got upset that I wasn't answering and kicked me out of his rooms. What makes you think I'll tell you?"

"You were in _his_ rooms?"

"I didn't know. I had only gone into the lounge area of his rooms. I just liked it and hadn't thought it part of anyone's rooms," Steve rubbed the back of his neck. Natasha's brow resumed it's arched position yet again.

"Well, you better figure things out. Too much internal conflict would be detrimental to the group. Not only that, Adrian seems like he could make a disagreement rather... painful for the instigators."

Steve nodded tiredly, he'd just have to get used to having forbidden fruit dangling in front of him, "Do you have anything to report?"

"No."

"Then I'll be on my way," Steve stepped past the spy and headed to the gym Tony had started getting installed. It wasn't quite finished, but he had seen some punching bags in passing.

* * *

Adrian glared at his hands as he worked some glass through them absentmindedly. He was thinking about Steve again, who seemed to be uncomfortable with him even though they were supposed to be soul mates. How was he supposed to focus on figuring things out when he couldn't even stop his mind from wandering back to the same thing?

'Maybe think about where he's coming from? After all, he is from a time where any sort of homosexuality was viewed _very_ negatively. Plus, he doesn't even know if views of 'homosexuality' have gotten any better.'

"What? Who said that?" Adrian glanced around the room. His brow furrowed further when he saw no one there.

'Me.'

"Kendra?"

'Yep. You might not want to talk out loud to me though. After all, talking to a nonexistent person isn't well looked upon.'

'How are you…'

'Communicating with you? Good question. I'm not quite sure myself I should have been fully merged with you, but I have a theory.'

Adrian raised a brow and waited a moment for her to elaborate. When nothing came from her he rumbled, 'Well?'

'Oh! Sorry. I think it's likely because you need guidance and concentrated my knowledge and such into a focus point in your mind. I'm not actually Kendra, rather, I am merely her knowledge and personality overlaying a memory of her. Specifically her voice at the moment.'

'Are you going to keep referring to… Her as her? I don't know how to phrase that. I guess "Are you going to keep referring to yourself as her?" might work, but if what you are saying is true than that wouldn't necessarily make full sense…'

'How about we move on?' Kendra's memory said quickly to stop Adrian's rapid thoughts.

'Sure, what did you mean earlier?'

'You mean when I was telling you to look at things from his perspective?'

'Yeah… I hadn't thought of that. Which is strange. I usually try to think of things from the differing sides' perspectives when there's conflicts.'

'I'm not surprised. You are still recovering from your Dimensional traveling. Plus, there's the vast amount of knowledge, experience, and other things being shoved into your brain. On top of all that, you fought in a battle using abilities you only barely started working with and kept it up to the point of needing to take a break. You aren't an invincible "Mary Jane," you know. You can tire using your abilities if you use too much too fast. Although, you may be able to work to increase your energy limits by exercising and working your body to increase stamina and your endurance. You aren't invincible either. You need to work on protecting yourself while you use other abilities, which will further stress your body if you use up too much energy. Again, I recommend the exercising.'

'Okay,' Adrian's mental voice sighed, 'I'll take your hint and try running a few miles if you so wish.'

'Good. Anyways, all those memories and knowledge need to be processed and with the energy drop and travel, your brain is just starting on continuing the processing again. Not being yourself fully is to be expected, nor will you ever go back to being the same person as you were before.'

'Really?'

'Are you really surprised? You've had countless numbers of personalities and experiences crammed into your head. That will obviously change your personality, reactions, reflexes, and outlook on life.'

'I had thought about that, but wasn't sure I wanted it to happen. I was actually focusing on keeping my personality intact.'

Adrian flinched as he heard the Kendra voice screech, 'What! Adrian! No wonder why those memories are all foggy. You're attempting to keep your pre-absorption mind? That's making your brain attempt to lock away all your experiences and memories. Adrian, in trying to keep yourself- you're losing yourself! You can't let your desire to keep up your former self prevent you from achieving who you were meant to be!'

'Kendra, almost my whole life before I came here was miserable. I had no one. Yes, I had people who considered me their friend and I had some spontaneous moments of happiness and laughter that were oh so fleeting in a void, but they didn't even know anything about me. Heck, not a single one of them even thought of me possibly being gayer than a rainbow, no one noticed when I wasn't myself. I was alone in the worst way- surrounded yet isolated. I actually tried, you know that? I might not have been here if it hadn't been for someone I've never even met in person.

There were so many things for mental health- even a whole organization created in my own school. No one noticed that they were pushing someone with abhorrent mental health to the brink and even the starter of the organization flat out ignored my existence. And yet, I made it. I may have had to use some heavy acting skills and unhealthy amounts of reading, insane jabbering to myself, and watching videos online and movies on repeat, but I'm here and I'm stronger for it. Eventually, I had actually made something of myself. I… was finding myself and it was a good person I was moulding out of sadness and loneliness. I guess this is just another step. I wasn't even close to whole before I got here, I just wanted to hang on to the good of the past that I had found in books and all the other things I immersed myself in. I didn't want to keep hold of anything else. Now... Foggy, my memories of things are foggy,' Adrian's voice cut off in a sob. He smiled slightly to himself as he continued molding the glass in his hands and felt Kendra trying to comfort him.

'Well, Adrian, you just need to stop trying to hang onto those things alone and things should get better. Meditate a bit and organize your mind, it should help you fortify yourself against mental attacks- whether from yourself or others. Accepting the memories and everything should allow you to keep those things in mind and solidify them to the point of being almost impossible to manipulate. Though, you may want to figure out how to hide some of your memories and knowledge. You know very well who will eventually try to mess with your mind,' Kendra intoned wisely.

Adrian nodded and started developing a plan to fit meditation into his daily schedule- maybe for thirty minutes before he makes breakfast for everyone? Or it could be before he goes to sleep, even though that only occurs every three days or so depending on how much he expends himself.

He also thought more on the problem of Steve. He normally wasn't so obnoxious in showing his sexuality- he's used to gay guys using him as a prime example of straight guys funnily enough- but he was just trying to get it across to Steve that he was interested. Probably could've been done a bit better though. It's true, he did come from an unfortunately prejudiced time. Not to say the world is no longer prejudiced, but things are getting better.

'OH! I just remembered!' Adrian jumped at the shout from the Kendra voice in his head.

'Do you mind telling me why you needed to give me a headache?'

'Sorry…' the voice sounded sufficiently sheepish, 'It's just that I recalled what I didn't tell you about since you had touched me before I could. Those tests I did? Well, interesting results. You have some differences compared to the average human. They include: an advanced metabolism, mass energy ecto-discharge, anomalous blood, and… the capability of masculus praegnatus. If that's what it'd be called. I'm not the best with Latin.'

'And what does any of that mean?'

'You digest things quickly and also have mass amounts of energy as a result. You can also move a good bit faster than normal people. Not quite Quicksilver speeds, but faster. The discharge grants you the ability to manipulate differing energies and such like atomic particles, which allows you to manipulate elements as you've already experimented with. Takes a lot of energy though when done for a long time. The blood is probably because of some of your metamorphing abilities. The last, I just tried to give a more scientific name, using some poor latin, for male pregnancy.'

Adrian sputtered, 'What?!'

'It's why I had quickly told you to use protection. Given your shapeshifting, your body has the capabilities to gestate and naturally give birth. Or have a C-section depending on what form you choose to deliver in.'

'That's… a lot to process…But I'll meditate on that as well, I guess? Anything else? Or can I go back to thinking of how to With the starting plans of his new insert to his routine formulated Adrian stood, quickly moulding the glass into a simple sphere and cooling it. Besides, it was almost dinner time, and cooking helped his stress and such. Knowing the others' somewhat lacking skill in cooking, they wouldn't have any food being prepared. Instead there would be some such order of take-out on the way. He headed to the kitchen, he'd make something quick and easy.

* * *

Steve sighed as he rested his head against the shower wall. He'd spent the last half hour punching multiple punching bags. Tony probably wouldn't be happy that he'd broken a few things, but it's not like he meant to. He just forgets his strength in the moment when he lets his stresses, frustration, and anger out in his work outs. He shook his head as he realized he was starting to drift to thinking about Adrian again. Things shouldn't be happening. He shouldn't be attracted to someone who's the same sex as him! But he still couldn't find it within himself to stop thinking about the handsome man who constantly was so tempting when he's busy concentrating on art and bites his lips or gracefully moving about the kitchen as he prepares food with a smile on his face that pulls at his heart. He toweled off, not realizing that he had already slipped into thinking about Adrian.

"Supper!" Steve started at the knocking Adrian made on his door. He headed out and again caught Natasha and Tony speaking.

"Do you think there's something going on between Capsicle and Adrian?"

Natasha stared at Tony as he asked the question. It's even more apparent that Steve needs to get over whatever's giving him problems with Adrian if even _Tony_ noticed. Natasha was about to answer when Adrian showed up with the food and she spotted Steve entering. Her mouth snapped shut.

"Here you guys go! I made some spaghetti and meatballs. I made the sauce with some tomatoes and herbs from the garden. I had to use up the garlic bread in the freezer though since they should be used before I actually make some."

All was silent a moment as Adrian, despite how everyone said he didn't have to do it, dished up everyone's food. Adrian left a plate for the person who he knew would soon be coming with the smell. Steve gulped as Adrian's gaze landed on him, expecting a hard, angry glare, but was instead shocked when a soft gaze was what he got with a small nod.

"I smell something delicious!" Clint crowed as he crawled out of a nearby vent.

"It's as good as it smells," Tony smirked before taking a loud bite of his garlic bread.

Adrian smiled at the archer as he sat down and the others engaged in conversation, before turning to the man who had been silent since he sat down at the table, "Something on the mind Bruce?"

"It's fine. Just feels off sometimes being here when I recall my years on the run."

"That's understandable. Feel free to come talk to me though if you need someone to talk to."

The doctor smiled at the offer, "Thanks. I'll keep it in mind."

Adrian simply winked before turning to Steve, "Steve?"

"Yes, Adrian?" Steve internally panicked as he realized everyone else turned their attention onto them despite continuing their conversations. He didn't know what Adrian wanted, but was hesitant to expect any good considering how their last conversation went.

He didn't have to worry as much as all Adrian had to say was, "Can we talk later?"

He gave an internal sigh of relief before nodding. His heart skipped a beat at the smile Adrian gave him.

It was a few moments before he realized what he had agreed to. That's when the panic set in.

* * *

 **Boom! Done! There's the chapter for y'all! So, question of the day: What do ya guys think of this seemingly rocky start to Steve and Adrian's relationship? Certainly Steve won't let his doubts and fear get to him, will he? I guess we'll have to wait and see. Need to set up some filler though too... Can't just assume that the group were blatantly accepted into the group, can we? Well, I have plenty of ideas for what to do for this to continue and eventually be finished... At that point- who knows what will happen? *smirks* Let's just say that I've had much inspiration and some brain child's come about... However, now's not the time to speak of such things. Give feedback in reviews (it's certainly appreciated!), favorite or follow! I appreciate the people who like my work enough to do so.**

 **Rock on my fellow gals and guys!**


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